Comparative multilingual legal vocabulary
Caroline Reichling Directorate general for Translation Court of Justice of the European Union
28 March 2011, Luxembourg Context
In December 2008, the question was put before the Court’s DGT by the Publications Office
Could the Court of Justice contribute to the creation of a multilingual legal vocabulary (‘VJM’) for the various legal systems of Member States of the
European Union? 2 Context E-Justice Communication
Portal one of the objectives of which is to use IT to improve citizens’ access to justice
Aim of VJM: To make available to lawyers and EU citizens a multilingual documentary tool for indexing and consulting the documentary resources of national legal databases
The Court’s answer: feasibility test 3 Feasibility test
Two fields:
Rights of aliens and Family law
All languages, but not all systems
4 Feasibility test
Two aspects managed in parallel: terminological and documentary
Tool allowing users to find information (documentary requirement, thesaurus) and to understand it (terminological requirement)
March 2009 / June 2010 5 Human resources
24 lawyer linguists covering 24 legal systems and 23 languages
Management team 2 lawyer linguists (preparatory work) 1 assistance team 1 assistant for IT support 1 coordinator 6 Technical working environment CuriaTerm (internal terminological database)
Wiki for virtual discussions and proposals of new concepts
Excel for work follow-up and management of non-descriptors
Freemind for the construction of conceptual diagrams (trees) 7 Identification of specialised terminology
8 Principal sources Legislation (national, EU and INT) Travaux preparatoires Case Law Doctrine International conventions and agreements Specialised reading material and comparative law studies Glossaries, dictionaries and thesaurus, especially: Eurovoc & Tesauro 9 Organisation of specialised concepts
(example: top-term «asile» (asylum)10 Recording terminological data within an internal database in a structured manner while respecting a main rule
Single-concept principle = One record per concept
= The principle that a terminology record should deal with one concept only and that all data relating to a given concept should be consolidated on one record.
11 Domains Cross references
Note12 Désignation(s) of the concept Terminological references Origin: Legal system Context (when useful)
13 14 Definition
Note
15 Definition
Note
16 Several designations for one concept Origin: sector and legal system One preferred term by legal system
17 (nd)
18 19 FORMULATION
NL: two legal systems
20 Differences with a standard thesaurus
Terminological elements (precision, relevance and reliability)
One preferred term by legal system and not by language
21 Differences with a standard thesaurus
Relationship «to be distinguished» Allows the saving of application notes abandon d’enfant (The failure of a parent to provide any financial assistance to or communicate with a child over a period of time) délaissement d’enfant (child abandonment, who is found abandoned)
Management of non-descriptor Only synonyms and variants within the same record
22 Management of non-descriptors Recapitulation «Words or expressions which denote, in the natural language, the same concept or equivalent concepts or concepts considered, in the thesaurus language, as equivalent to those represented by descriptors. »
23 Management of non-descriptors
Refinement of equivalence relationships between descriptors and non-descriptors other than synonyms:
. antonyme (infidelity USE duty of fidelity)
. narrower and national (PACS (FR) / civil partnership (UK) USE registered partnership (UE)
. narrower and marginal (bigamy USE polygamous marriage) 24 . feminin equivalent (sister USE brother)
. person (curator USE curatorship )
. precoordination (paternal parentage USE parentage + father )
. close (hearing of the child USE right of the child to be heard)
. similar meanings (fiançailles / engagement USE promesse de mariage
/ promise of marriage) 25 Systematic display: Rights of aliens CA concept associé (related concept) Identification number
CS concept spécifique (narrower concept)
26 FR / EN Systematic display FR / EN
27 garde alternée joint custody (2110)
28 Advantages to combine terminological and documentary aspects Organisation within a conceptual tree (mind map):
. Is efficient for visualising, structuring, and classifying concepts. . Allows user to understand better the concepts and the relations between them.
Integration of the added value of terminology that provides more detailed semantic and terminological data. 29 Possible use Aid to translation (specialised multilingual terminology) Court / E-justice / IATE
Aid to documentary research (thesaurus) Court / E-justice / Eurovoc (Eur-Lex / N-Lex) / National databases
Aid to understanding texts Court / E-justice / Eurovoc (Eur-Lex / N-Lex) / National databases
30 An aid to legal translation Multilingual terminological and detailed entry
Time saving
Harmonisation and quality
Comparative Law
31 An aid to legal translation Multilingual terminological and detailed entry
To find the “terms” but also:
. to understand the exact meaning of a concept and the difference between several concepts which are similar (arborescence and other data) . to avoid searching for the difference between several terms which express the same meaning (synonyms) . to use suitable references and to have direct access to multilingual documents (e.g.: EUR- Lex), etc.
32 An aid to research and to translation
33 34 35 An aid to documentary research
Could be used as a controlled vocabulary:
Indexation tool for documentalists Search tool for users . By subject (hierarchical display / systematic display) . By terms that could be combined to do an expert search 36 Top terms under «Right of aliens»
entry into the territory
37 NT1 (NT: Narrower Term)Mind under Map the (test) top term «admission/entry into the territory
entry requirements
38 NT2 under «entry requirements» visa
39 airport transit visa
NT3 NT6 sous «visa»
40 41
Why use this tool (terminology + thesaurus) as an aid to research?
To formulate precise queries thanks to a combinatory language
To carry out an intuitive search without necessarily knowing the right vocabulary (arborescence)
42 Why use this tool (terminology + thesaurus) as an aid to research? Controlled vocabularies are claimed to improve the accuracy of free-text searching, such as to reduce irrelevant items in the retrieval list (noise by the inherent ambiguity of natural language) or to avoid silence.
To make a query in a text the language of which the user does not master
To carry out a search in a technical text using one’s own register 43 A thesaurus handles problems of homographs
minor
44 A thesaurus handles problems of FR synonymy mariage fictif OR EN mariage de complaisance marriage of OR convenience mariage blanc OR OR sham marriage mariage simulé OR OR ? ? 45 A multilingual thesaurus handles problems of language barrier
What about the concept «concubinage» (living together as a cohabiting couple) in the Spanish system?
Search for «concubinage» in spanish texts
Concept n° 9
concubinage concubinato unión de hecho union libre
unión libre union de fait 46 concubinage union libre union non- matrimoniale union de fait union hors mariage
unión libre unión no matrimonial concubinato unión paramatrimonial unión de hecho
47 48 49 FR EN
50 FR EN
51 FR EN
52 A multilingual thesaurus handles problems linked to linguistic and / or conceptual developments What about «puissance paternelle» in 2011 in France and Portugal?
Research: «puissance paternelle» … Concept n° 2
EU Cross reference FR: puissance poder responsabilité paternelle paternal responsabilidad parentale e parental patria potestas patria pátrio potestas autoridade autorité poder parental parentale 53 FR PT
54 FR PT
55 56 57 Difficulties… Delimiting the concept Establishing equivalence To what extent can one accept a partial equivalence especially with so many systems? Drafting terminological definitions National law and EU law terminology
58 Difficulties… Choice of preferred terms How to limit the concepts to what is «strictly necessary»? Arborescence: reaching a consensus No accurate term for existing concept Target public
Update in such a dynamic field 59 Challenges ahead
Integration into a database which is not only multilingual but also multi-systems (to what legal system does a term belong?)
Adaptation of the tool to a public which is not expert in thesaurus
60 Positive points Comparative multilingual legal terminology available in real-time in CuriaTerm
Research and legal comparison work is very motivating
Broader range of skills of colleagues
Contribution to the interinstitutional cooperation (Eurovoc and IATE) 61 Assessment Multilingual collection of more than 600 concepts
Following a strict methodology and regular meetings
Specialists (legal, translation, terminology, documentary)
Investment in training 62 Assessment
In-depth research in national law and comparative law is essential
Three pivot systems
Fundamental qualities (investment & consensual spirit & open to new technologies)
Suitable IT tool 63
Thank you! [email protected]
64