Instrumental case:

♦ длиной 3,5 км и толщиной 1,5 км: 3.5 km long and 1.5 km thick

♦ нефтепровод Тенгиз-Атырау-Новороссийск KTK протяженностью 1580 км: CPC's 1,580-km-long Tengiz-Atyrau-Novorossiisk pipeline

♦ стальные сердечники диаметром 800 мм: 800-mm-diameter steel cores

♦ проект стоимостью 24 млн. долларов: a $24m project

♦ запчасти стоимостью 12 млн. долларов: spare parts worth/costing $12m

♦ первый этап продолжительностью 12-17 месяцев: the first phase, lasting 12-17 months, ...

♦ компрессором мощностью в 35 мегаватт: a 35-MW compressor Distances:

♦ в 12 км от газоперерабатывающего завода: 12 km (away) from the gas refinery (neater and more common than "at a distance of 25 km from...")

♦ [Russian??]: 25 km north of...

♦ на высоте 1700 метров над уровнем моря: (at an altitude of) 1,700 m. above sea level

3. Legal translation

(1) Accuracy - missing words/paragraphs, figures. Don't correct errors and illogicalities (e.g. "EEC" when you know it should be "EU"). The lawyer reading your translation needs to know they are there.

(2) Consistent use of terms. In most cases, we need to "allocate" one English word to each Russian term. (Story about Alastair.)

For example, владение must be translated possession, not "ownership", to distinguish it from собственность, which to lawyers is a very important distinction. Право владения and право собственности are different rights, defined in the Civil Code.

(3) Perhaps the greatest danger in legal translation is the scope for being seduced by "equivalents". It is crucial that we remember the key difference between our legal systems. The Anglo-Saxon world is governed by common law, and the meaning of any particular term springs from centuries of case law. Russia, like the rest of Europe, has a civil law system, and all essential terms are defined in the Civil Code and other laws. That is why here you can have a two-page contract to sell a company, while Anglo-Saxon contracts typically run to 50-100 pages to cover all eventualities.

We non-lawyers seize on a word like "title" and think "What a great translation for право собственности!" Yet "title" is a common-law term that conveys a wealth of meanings to English or American lawyers that право собственности does not contain (and vice versa). Therefore right of ownership, though admittedly more prosaic, is less likely to mislead your lawyer readers. An акционерное общество is not a "plc" (which is listed on a stock exchange), but a joint-stock company. Досрочное прекращение is early termination, not "anticipatory breach", which sounds nice but has a much narrower meaning.

The translator's job is to convey the meaning clearly, not to pretend that the text was written in New York or London. There is a precedent for this. Most EU law is based on civil-law concepts and is officially written in English, drafted in such a way that it is comprehensible to English or French/German lawyers.

Legal writing is very formal. Legal documents are amended, not "changed". They concern transactions, not "deals". (See also the examples above.)

He вправе should be translated does not have the right, not "has no right". When people say "He has no right to do that!" they are angry or indignant.

Do not forget the useful words (t)hereof, (t)hereunder, (t)herein, etc., but do not overuse them either...

♦ земельный участок или его часть: the land plot or part thereof (not "its part") Incidentally, these words should be avoided when translating non-legal texts.

In general, verbs in laws, contracts etc. are in the form "shall...", because they are prescribing something. However, when lawyers later refer to them in memos or letters, the present tense should be used (because they are describing the current state of affairs):

♦ The Seller shall be liable for... [in a contract]

♦ According to the contract, the Seller is liable for... [memo or letter]

Where numbers occur in a contract, Russian expresses them in figures first and words second in brackets; English puts them the other way round:

♦ 10% (десять процентов): ten percent (or per cent)

Пункт 6 статьи 7 is best rendered Article 7.6 (rather than "clause 6 of Article 7").

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© Copyright Teresa Pearce 2003