Legal translation is the translation of language used in legal settings and for legal purposes. Legal translation may also imply that it is a specific type of translation only used in law, which is not always the case. As law is a culture-dependent subject field, legal translation is not necessarily linguistically transparent. Intransparency in translation can be avoided somewhat by use of Latin legal terminology, where possible, but in non-western languages, debates are centred on the origins and precedents of specific terms, such as in the use of particular Chinese characters in Japanese legal discussions. Intransparency can lead to expensive misunderstandings in terms of a contract, for example, resulting in avoidable lawsuits. Legal translation is thus usually done by specialized law translators. Conflicts over the legal impact of a translation can be avoided by indicating that the text is “authentic” i.e. legally operative on its own terms or instead is merely a “convenience translation”, which itself is not legally operative. Courts only apply authentic texts and do not rely on “convenience” translations in adjudicating rights and duties of litigants.
