ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the translation of some lexical elements between English and Arabic and vice versa with reference to three legal subtypes, namely, international, legislative and official. From Arabic into English, these elements include religious, culture-specific and system-based terms and archaic terms. The translator has used the technique of 'cultural adaptation' by giving the nearest equivalent in the English culture. English archaic terms are considered part and parcel of English legal discourse. Grammarian Al-Khafaji has undertaken a study to validate the hypothesis that explicitation and avoiding lexical repetition is one of the translation universals between English and Arabic. He comes up with the conclusion that this hypothesis is valid, bearing in mind the small-scale corpus he has used. Al-Khafaji has investigated such hypotheses in literary Arabic, not considering other Arabic registers such as legal Arabic.
