Training Legal Translators. A Survey of Current Practices

According to estimates by the DG Justice of the European Commission (2009), criminal proceedings involving a non-national account for a significant percentage within the EU (±10%). As increasingly more attention is being paid to the rights of accused persons and victims of crime, the duties and requirements asked of legal translators and interpreters are as pressing as ever. However, the training, status and working conditions of LITs seem to remain somewhat overlooked. This paper reports on the provisional findings of an EU-wide survey carried out as part of the project QUALETRA (JUST/2011/JPEN/AG/2975), funded by the DG Justice in response to Directive 2010/64/EU. The survey investigates the responses provided by institutions offering training to legal translators or interpreters (LITs) as to the competencies to be developed during the trainees’ university studies and/or their continuing professional development. The results are contrastively presented against responses by institutions offering, on the other hand, language training to legal practitioners. Reference is made to the types of texts presented in class to LITs, so as to assess the impact of the Directive which explicitly lists the essential documents to be translated, both in national proceedings and in cases involving the European Arrest Warrant (EAW). Besides language and translation-oriented skills, specific focus lies on the legal knowledge at national, international and EU level within both civil and criminal law. Finally, the survey investigates the importance of professional ethics and academic competencies. Preliminary results seem to indicate that there is still a long way to go before the requirements of the Directive are met.