Importance and difficulties of German-Portuguese legal translation

Abstract

German-Portuguese legal translation has always had, has and will continue to have a fundamental importance for all legal systems in the Portuguese-speaking world. What is at stake is not essentially its direct economic importance, which is of limited significance, but rather the determining contribution it provides in accessing much more evolved and developed sources of legal knowledge that belong to the same legal family (“continental European system”). This is especially true for legal literature in general and for positive law in particular. The translation of legal documents in the context of administrative or judicial proceedings is eminently practical and its scope is generally confined to the process. The modernization of the legal system will drive the modernization of society, economic development, more and better citizenship. Since law, by nature, is a dynamic reality (law in action), legal translation is never a finished job; it is necessary to translate more and better. In this perspective, it is imperative to continue to deepen knowledge capable of ensuring the quality that is essential for an ever-increasing volume of translation work. The help of computer programs remains quite limited, although some progress has been made in recent years. From the perspective of the work to be done, it is above all urgent to identify the multiple obstacles faced by legal translation. Only interdisciplinary cooperation is able to ensure reliable solutions to the many problems that German-Portuguese legal translation continues to pose.