ABSTRACT
For the lay translator, and especially the student translator following a Humanities or Arts programme, the many genres of legal and business text can be just as disconcerting as technical texts, and for exactly the same lexical and conceptual reasons. There is an added complication, however. Technical texts may be unfamiliar to the lay person, but at least they are talking about the same empirical set of phenomena, whatever the language — English deoxyribonucleic acid is Spanish äcido desoxirribonucleico is Romanian acid dezoxiribonucleic. But there are real differences between, say, the peninsular Spanish and British or Mexican Spanish and North American legal, financial and tax systems (not to mention the difference between Scottish and English law in Great Britain or between state law codes in the USA). Therefore, translators have not only to master SL and TL terminology, but also to familiarize themselves with the different systems and have a clear idea of the closest equivalences between them. Still, foreign trade does take place, British people do buy houses abroad, Europol does function, and so on. So, translation between systems is possible. The translator has two broad functions in enabling these things to happen. The first is to translate texts that have the force of law (e.g. legislation, constitutions, contracts) or are required by law (e.g. financial statements). The second is to translate legal or financial texts not as legally binding documents, but for other purposes, such as giving or requesting information.
