María Ángeles Orts Llopis

The untranslatability of law

As a direct consequence of the idiosyncrasies of its sources and interpretive procedures, every legal system has its own kind of language. In particular, the language of American contract law presents a variety of lexical features that often make them ‘untranslatable’ into Spanish. With American English serving as the lingua franca of the vast majority of commercial transactions worldwide, translating its legal texts into Spanish is an imperative, especially within the scope of bilateral commercial agreements between Spain and the USA. Through a close analysis of the terminological traits of this field, this article identifies and discusses fuzzy terms (false cognates or ‘false friends’) along with technical terms, whose similarity in both languages and Latin origin renders their translation problematic. Through the analysis and comparison of the legal meanings and contexts of these terms in both languages, this study aims to make a contribution to their translation.