legal-terms comparative-law
Do any English legal terms lack clear translations into other languages?
<p>I am looking for correct translations of English legal terms. Any language is welcome as target language, but let me ask just for French. (Maybe somebody from Canada knows very well and can help easily). </p>

<p>I wish to know which English legal terms are such that it is indeed difficult to translate them into French because the French legal system does not include a piece of institution that is analogous to whatever the English term denotes.</p>

<p>Terms of interest:</p>

<p>trial, </p>

<p>process, </p>

<p>due process, </p>

<p>proceedings, </p>

<p>fair trial, </p>

<p>bar, </p>

<p>attorney, </p>

<p>lawyer, </p>

<p>prosecutor, </p>

<p>court, </p>

<p>jury, </p>

<p>jurors, </p>

<p>judge, </p>

<p>evidence, </p>

<p>burden of proof,</p>

<p>crime,  </p>

<p>plaintiff, </p>

<p>defendant, </p>

<p>claimant and respondent, </p>

<p>to sue, </p>

<p>redress, </p>

<p>punishment, </p>

<p>compensation, </p>

<p>restitution, </p>

<p>civil vs. criminal</p>

<p>right</p>

<p>law</p>

<p>Any of these terms has a very specific legal meaning. In another country, there may be no legal thing with exactly the same meaning. You can translate as much as you like, but the closest matching word will not have exactly to same meaning. </p>

<p>For example, instead of trying to translate "prosecutor" you might try to translate "US prosecutor". For example in a French translation, combining "American" with the word closest to "prosecutor" would quite clearly exactly express a US prosecutor. </p>

<p>Another example, try translating "First degree murder", "second degree murder", "manslaughter" into German. There they are different classes of illegally and non accidentally killing a person, but the definitions of each class won't match exactly the US definitions. I'd translate "First degree murder" als "Mord ersten Grades nach US Gesetz", making up a term that doesn't legally exist in Germany (there is nothing matching "first degree murder"), and add "US law" because that way the exact meaning is clear. </p>

<p><a href="http://iate.europa.eu" rel="nofollow">IATE</a> lists official EU translations, including their sources. For "trial" in French, 350 references are given. Narrowing the search to domain 12 (law), we still have 130 references. These are certainly not unique translations, mostly minor contextual differences. It's fairly obvious that the primary translation is "procès".</p>
