translation language
What conventions or traditions concern translation of legal abbreviations?
<p>I am currently working on a legal translation, a judgment from Estonian to English.</p>

<p>What is the conventional solution with regard to translating abbreviations of acts?</p>

<p>In my situation, there's the Act on Granting International Protection to Aliens mentioned in the text of the judgment. It's <em>välismaalasele rahvusvahelise kaitse andmise seadus</em> in Estonian, abbreviated <em>VRKS</em>. Does it make sense to keep the established (Estonian) abbreviation, or use a made-up English one (AGIPA, for example)?</p>

<p>As far as I know, it is standard to not translate official citation abbreviations, so UrhG stays UrhG, and RT is RT. If a citation is of the form "Act 2 of 12 May 1961" that would be translated, rather than "Lov av 12. mai 1961 nr. 2". <a href="https://www.riigiteataja.ee/en/eli/530102013009/consolide" rel="nofollow noreferrer">RT I 2006, 2, 3</a> officially uses your translation of the title, and all English citations of the law that I can find use the translation and not the Estonian title. "AGIPA" is <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=agipa%20estonia&amp;oq=agipa%20estonia&amp;gs_l=psy-ab.3..33i160k1.20432.22454.0.22662.8.8.0.0.0.0.215.951.3j4j1.8.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.6.654...0j0i30k1j0i22i30k1.0.IUsnY67XSKk" rel="nofollow noreferrer">not unprecedented</a>, but not as common as the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Act%20on%20Granting%20International%20Protection%20to%20Aliens&amp;ie=utf-8&amp;oe=utf-8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">non-abbreviated English</a> (which turns out to be <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=v%C3%A4lismaalasele%20rahvusvahelise%20kaitse%20andmise%20seadus&amp;ie=utf-8&amp;oe=utf-8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">more popular</a> that the actual Estonian name).</p>
