Jacqueline Visconti (Università di Genova) TextLink COST Action IS1312

1. “Discourse, Technology and Translation” ConferenceMykolasRomerisUniversity12 October 2017On legal translation: a textualist approach Jacqueline Visconti (Università di Genova) TextLinkCOST Action IS1312

5. “Come a molti colleghi, anche a me capita con una certa frequenza di sentirmi chiedere dei consigli da studenti di facoltà linguistiche o di traduzione che aspirano a una carriera nell'UE. Con me restano per lo più spiazzati quando insisto sull'unica cosa che a loro sembra irrilevante, cioè la necessità di coltivare e maturare prioritariamente il rapporto con l'italiano attraverso buone letture, ma anche adottando un atteggiamento criticamente vigile nei confronti della lingua”.

6. “Entweder der Übersetzer lässt den Schriftsteller möglichst in Ruhe, und bewegt den Leser ihm entgegen; oder er lässt den Leser möglichst in Ruhe und bewegt den Schriftsteller ihm entgegen” (Fr. Schleiermacher, Über die verschiedenen Methoden des Übersetzens, Abhandlungen der Kön.-Preuss. Akad. der Wiss. zu Berlin. Philos. Kl. 1812-13; 1816) “belle infedeli” vs “brutte fedeli” (B. Croce) The Problem of (Un)Translatability, Paolo Ramat, Rivista Italiana di Linguistica Applicata 39, fasc. 1-2 / 2007 (Sumeri, quarto millennio a.C.)

7. legaltranslation: “the art of facing the impossible, of confrontingunbridgeablediscontinuitiesbetweentexts, languages and people” (J. B. White 1994: 257)

8. “No exactequivalence or complete identityofunderstanding can beexpected or isreallynecessary” (D. Cao 2007: 35) • S. Šarĉević, Challengesto the legaltranslator, in The Oxford HandbookofLegalLanguage, 2012.

9. “The sense of all truly performative statements is, indeed, magical. They purport to create something. That which is held to be performed is the creation of a non-physical relationship or property through the pronouncing of some words. Such doings fall under the category of magic” (Olivecrona 1962, P. 175) J. Visconti, Speech Acts in Legal Language, Journal of Pragmatics, vol. 41/3, 2009.

10. “Less salient in this reflection, however, is the crucial role in the building of the interpretation played by those expressions, such as prepositions or connectives, whose meaning is primarily “procedural” in nature: these are also called “function” words. Rather than conveying concepts, which is the typical function of nouns and other “content” words, the primary role of function words is to provide indications on how to combine and process the concepts expressed by nouns or adjectives” (Visconti 2014: 249).

11. L. Allen, Symbolic Logic: A Razor-Edged Tool for Drafting and Interpreting Legal Documents, in «The Yale law journal», LXVI (1957), pp. 833 sgg., notava quanti legami logici potessero esser nascosti da semplici congiunzioni, quali e, o, ecc. J. Visconti, European integration: connectives in EU legislation, International Journal of Applied linguistics, 2013, pp. 44-59 G. Pontrandolfo, “Marcadoresargumentativos del contraste y discurso judicial”, Hermes 52, 2014

12. C-437/97 (41ff):dir. 77/388/CEE du Conseil (17 mai 1977) Art. 3. 2. I prodotti di cui al paragrafo 1 possono formare oggetto di altre imposizioni indirette aventi finalità specifiche, nella misura in cui esse rispettino le regole di imposizione applicabili ai fini della accise o dell'IVA per la determinazione della base imponibile, il calcolo, l’esigibilità e il controllo dell'imposta. Art. 3. 2. Auf die in Absatz 1 genannten Waren können andere indirekte Steuern mit besonderer Zielsetzung erhoben werden, sofern diese Steuern die Besteuerungsgrundsätze der Verbrauchsteuern oder der Mehrwertsteuer in bezug auf die Besteuerungsgrundlage sowie die Berechnung, die Steuerentstehung und die steuerliche Überwachung beachten. Art. 3. 2.  The products listed in paragraph 1 may be subject to other indirect taxes for specific purposes, provided that those taxes comply with the tax rules applicable for excise duty andVAT purposes as far as determination of the tax base, calculation of the tax, chargeability and monitoring of the tax are concerned.

13. Silvia Ferreri, Jacqueline Visconti et al., DocumentQualityControl in Public Administrations and International Organisations, Publication Office of the EuropeanUnion, 2013: pp. 82-86 (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/publications/studies/index_en.htm)

14. Manual of precedents for acts established within the Council of the European Union (http://ec.europa.eu /translation/documents/council/manual_precedents_acts_en.pdf • “It is advisable to specify the link between the different items in a list. Where there is a list in a sentence, that link may be expressed by ‘and’ (cumulative list), ‘or’ or ‘either… or’ (alternative list) [...] The conjunction ‘or’ should only be used when the nature of the link is clear because, as the Court has held, the meaning of this conjunction differs depending on the context in which it is used” (p. 119).

15. Altri connettivi: es. Maastricht (1992) in so far as soweit in quanto, nei limiti in cui, nella misura in cui, sempreché dans la mesure où, pour autant que, dans les limites où

16. Visconti (T&T 2000)

17. Notwithstanding paragraph 1, and by way of derogation from Article 19(1) of Regulation 850/98 when fishing with gears having a mesh size equal to or less than 32 mm all catches of stocks, including stocks to which the obligation to land does not apply, shall be brought and retained on board the fishing vessels and landed (COM/2012/0471 final - 2012/0232 (COD) Chapt II, Art. 3.2). Fatto salvoil disposto del paragrafo 1 e in deroga all’articolo 19, paragrafo 1, del regolamento (CE) n. 850/98, quando la pesca è praticata per mezzo di attrezzi con maglie di dimensioni pari o inferiori a 32 mm, tutte le catture effettuate negli stock, compresi quelli cui l’obbligo di sbarco non si applica, sono portate sui pescherecci, tenute a bordo e sbarcate.

18. Every citizen of the Union shall have the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States, subject to the limitations and conditions laid down in the Treaties and by the measures adopted to give them effect (Trattato di Lisbona, Art. 21). Ogni cittadino dell’Unione ha il diritto di circolare e di soggiornare liberamente nel territorio degli Stati membri, fatte salvele limitazioni e le condizioni previste dai trattati e dalle disposizioni adottate in applicazione degli stessi. Tout citoyen de l'Union a le droit de circuler et de séjourner librement sur le territoire des États membres, sous réserve des limitations et conditions prévues par les traités et par les dispositions prises pour leur application.

19. In certain circumstances and subject to the nature of the finding the competent authority may extend the three months period subject tothe provision of a satisfactory corrective action plan agreed by the competent authority (Commission Regulation (EU) No 748/2012, 21.A.158). In alcune circostanze e sulla base della natura della non conformità l’autorità competente può estendere il periodo di tre mesi salvo la presentazione di un soddisfacente piano d’azione correttiva approvato dall’autorità competente.

20. In the course of its duties, the European Parliament may, at the request of a quarter of its Members, set up a temporary Committee of Inquiry to investigate […] alleged contraventions or maladministration in the implementation of Community law, except where the alleged facts are being examined before a court and while the case is still subject to legal proceedings (Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, Art. 20b). Nell’ambito delle sue funzioni, il Parlamento europeo, su richiesta di un quarto dei suoi membri, può costituire una commissione temporanea d’inchiesta incaricata di esaminare [...] le denunce di infrazione o di cattiva amministrazione nell’applicazione del diritto comunitario, salvoquando i fatti di cui trattasi siano pendenti dinanzi ad una giurisdizione e fino all’espletamento o della procedura giudiziaria.

21. CESL: verbi modali Article 14 The information to be provided under point (b) of Article 13 (1) must include: […] Le informazioni da fornire ai sensi dell'articolo 13, paragrafo 1, lettera b), devono comprendere: […] Die Informationen, die nach Artikel 13 Absatz 1 Buchstabe b zu erteilen sind, müssen sich erstrecken auf: […] Les informations à fournir en vertu de l'article 13, paragraphe 1, point b), doivent inclure: […]

22. DIRECTIVE 2008/48/EC on credit agreements for consumers (Art. 4) 1. Any advertising concerning credit agreements which indicates an interest rate or any figures relating to the cost of the credit to the consumer shall include standard information in accordance with this Article. 2. The standard information shallspecify in a clear, concise and prominent way by means of a representative example: […] 1. Qualsiasi pubblicità relativa a contratti di credito la quale indichi un tasso d'interesse o qualunque altro dato numerico riguardante il costo del credito per il consumatore contiene le informazioni di base di cui al presente articolo […] 2. Le informazioni di base riguardano, in forma chiara, concisa e graficamente evidenziata con l'impiego di un esempio rappresentativo: [...]

23. versione inglese CESL (33,801 words) • Dir. 2008/48 “credit agreements for consumers” (17,195 words) • CELS: 33 shall; 76 must • directive 2008/48: 148 shall; 9 must

24. G. Dannemann, S. Ferreri, M. Graziadei, Consolidating EC Contract Law Terminology: The Contribution of the Terminology Group, in Research Group on the Existing EC Private Law , Contract I: Pre-contractual Obligations, Conclusion of Contracts, Unfair Terms, München, 2007: “We also avoided one expression which British legislative drafters (and also their European counterparts, as is shown inter alia by the Interinstittional Agreement cited above) love to use, perhaps because it appears to add gravitas to any provision, namely ‘shall’. This may well be the most ambiguous word which is commonly used in legislative drafting.”

25. Ambiguitàdishall • (1) An employer shall permit a worker to take time off during working hours for the purpose of accompanying another of the employer’s workers in accordance with a request under subsection (1)(b). • (2) Sections 168(3) and (4), 169 and 171 to 173 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 shall apply in relation to subsection (6) above as they apply in relation to section 168(1) of that Act. • (Employment Relations Act 1999: Giuliana Garzone, Deontic Modality and Performativity in English Legal Texts, in M. Gotti & M. Dossena (eds.), Modality in Specialized Texts, Bern, 2001).

26. EC English Style Guide (7.17) • “The use of verbs, in particular the modal verb shall, in legislation often gives rise to problems, since such uses are rarely encountered in everyday speech. Consequently, writers may lack a feel for the right construction”.

27. http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/Office_of_the_Parliamentary_Counsel_revised_guidance_16_12_11.pdf, p. 14 • “various alternatives to shall which can be used, depending on context: must in the context of obligations (although is to be and it is the duty of may also be appropriate alternatives in certain contexts); there is to be in the context of the establishment of new statutory bodies etc.; the present tense in provisions about application, effect, extent or commencement; is to be in the context of provisions relating to statutory instruments (and, if appropriate, may not as an alternative to shall not).

28. Christopher Williams, Is legal English “going European”? The case of the simple present, Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 2013

30. Problemslegaltranslation: source text – normative text • “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made” (J.G. Saxe, University Chronicle, University of Michigan,1869)

31. Thankyou for yourattention! j.visconti@unige.it