Supporting the Rule of Law in Ukraine: The role of the English-Ukrainian legal dictionary translation project

Posted by Stephen Horowitz, Lecturer of Legal English

I and others on the Georgetown Legal English faculty have been very involved over the past two years in providing Legal English support to Ukrainian law schools in connection with a larger rule-of-law initiative.

What we hadn’t realized until my colleague Prof. John Dundon saw the below post on the Forensic Linguistics listserv is that there’s a fantastic English-Ukrainian legal dictionary translation project that has also been well underway and is also connected to rule of law efforts. We were extremely excited to learn that such a project exists and have already been in touch with the organizers to figure out if there might be any ways to collaborate or provide support.

Below is the text of the original announcement. It’s for an in-person event in the UK. But if you contact the organizer, you can also get access to a Zoom link.

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Supporting the Rule of Law in Ukraine: The role of the English-Ukrainian legal dictionary translation project

Tuesday 15th October, 10:00-14:15 Lloyd Suite, Edgbaston Park Hotel, University of Birmingham, UK

Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to invite you to a research event showcasing a UKRI funded English-Ukrainian Legal Dictionary translation project. Legal and linguistic experts from Ukraine’s Constitutional Court, the Department of Constitutional Law at Ivan Franko National University Lviv, and the University of Birmingham Law School, have combined their extensive expertise to develop an ‘English-Ukrainian’ Legal Dictionary.’ Through historical and legal analysis, this first of its kind dictionary will rectify the acute problems that continued application of post-Soviet legal terminology cause for understanding the rule of law in Ukrainian jurisprudence.

By providing correct translations of over 5,000 English-language legal terms, we seek to further embed the rule of law in Ukraine, support Ukraine’s development as a constitutional democracy and advance Euro-Atlantic integration. We invite you to attend this showcase event to meet the lead researchers and practitioners who have developed this unique handbook for scientists, human rights defenders, lawyers, judges, parliamentarians, and everyone who deals with international legal documents. Join us and lend your support to this interinstitutional initiative to help establish the rule of law in Ukraine and enshrine Ukrainian independence from Russian-dominated legal interpretation.

Register here: https://forms.office.com/e/afjpm7rNRT

Full event schedule below. 

Kind regards

Hannah Lowe

Global Partnerships Manager (Europe)

University of Birmingham

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Event Schedule

10:00-10:30

Coffee and registrations

10:30-10:40

Welcome

Professor Robin Mason, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International), University of Birmingham

10.40-11.05

The Case for an English-Ukrainian Legal Dictionary

Mr Serhiy Holovaty, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Legal Terminology of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. Head of the Ukrainian Academy of Legal Sciences. (Former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine)

11.05-11.30

The Dictionary’s impact and real-world application in the Ukrainian legal context 

Professor Serhii Riznyk, Justice, Constitutional Court of Ukraine

Professor Olena Boryslavska, Head of the Department of Constitutional Law, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv

11.30 -11.50 

Coffee break

11.50-12.15

Compiling the Dictionary’s 5000 terms and translations: linguistic, legal and phonological principles Associate 

Professor Nataliia Hrynia, Department of Foreign Languages for the Humanities, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv 

Professor Bohdan Azhnyuk, Director of the O. O. Potebnia Institute of Linguistics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv

12:15-12:40

Validating terms, translations and English Case Law examples: the British-Ukrainian collaborative process

Professor Lisa Webley, Head of the Centre for Research in Professional and Legal Education, Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham

Student researchers, Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham

12.40-13.15

Q&A/Panel discussion 

13:15-14:15

Lunch and networking

A different podcast interview with Georgetown Law’s Paula Klammer, legal translator and legal English professor

Post by Prof. Stephen Horowitz, Professor of Legal English

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview my colleague Paula Klammer for the Multilingual Lawyer interview series for the USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast, a podcast aimed at helping foreign-educated lawyers and law students improve their legal English.

Here’s a summary of the episode from USLawEssentials:

The USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast continues its series of interviews with multilingual lawyers as Stephen Horowitz interviews Professor Paula Klammer

Paula is a legal English Lecturer & Research Fellow at the Georgetown Center for Legal English. Currently earning her Ph.D. in Law from Universidad de Palermo in Argentina, Paula is an experienced lawyer and translator and is bilingual in Spanish and English. She speaks a few other languages, too, including French and Brazilian Portuguese (but she’s modest and says she’s not proficient yet).

This is a really cool interview with a fascinating guest. Paula’s bilingual background and her work as a translator enable her to provide insights on the special challenges of translating legal English, especially when dealing with false cognates, different writing styles, and very different legal systems.

Link to the episode is in the comments.

And hey – – do you think Spanish people speak faster or slower than most English speakers? Not sure? Got a hunch? You’ll find out.

Paula also discusses her doctoral dissertation so you’re going to learn a lot from this podcast.

Enjoy and let us know what you liked most about this episode.

Want to hear more from Paula? Listen to this May 2022 interview with her on the American Translators Association (ATA) podcast.

Legal English podcast interview with Italian lawyer-linguist Claudia Amato

Post by Prof. Stephen Horowitz, Legal English Lecturer & Adjunct Professor of Law

Claudia Amato, Italian lawyer-linguist

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Italian lawyer-linguist-teacher Claudia Amato, founder of SpeechLex, for the USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast, a podcast intended to help foreign-educated lawyers and law students to improve their legal English.

From USLawEssentials:

“The USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast continues its series of interviews with multilingual lawyers as Stephen Horowitz interviews Claudia Amato.”

“Based in Italy, Claudia is a remarkable attorney, translator, and legal English instructor. Among other things, she is the founder of SpeechLex, where she provides courses in legal English to help prepare attorneys and judges for the TOLES examination. In this episode, she also shares how her experiences working as a translator and teacher inspire her to help others as she explores the “human side” of people’s interaction with the law.
Oh – and as a surprise bonus- you get some helpful travel tips for Japan!”

Podcast interview with legal translator Paula Arturo

Post by Prof. Stephen Horowitz, Legal English Lecturer

I was very excited this morning to see that Daniel Sebesta of the American Translators Association (ATA) podcast had done a podcast interview with my Georgetown Legal English colleague, Professor Paula Arturo, about her work and career path as a legal translator. Episode and more info from the ATA website below:

From the ATA website:

“This is not another lawyer-turned-translator story which just goes to show you that there’s more one way to become a legal translator! In this episode of Inside Specialization, lawyer-linguist Paula Arturo tells ATA member Daniel Sebesta about the role passion plays in the decision to become a legal translator and why how much you’re willing to learn is key to becoming one of the best. You’ll also discover why “follow the money” is the secret to choosing a subspecialty, how you can compete against machine translation, and a surprising skill you’ll need to climb this career ladder.Comments? Email podcast@atanet.org.”

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