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Aforamiento: making us unequal before the law and wreaking havoc in bilingual...
When the King of Spain Juan Carlos de Borbón decided to call it a day and abdicate, he put everyone into a frenzy, the media especially, but also the Spanish Government, which had to rush about making...
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La casta política and where it came from
Here’s an interesting term that’s become popular in Spain: la casta as in la casta política. Literally, it’s the “political caste”, or the old guard on both sides of the political fence. A catchword of...
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Resources on civil proceedings in Spain vs. England & juicio oral vs. juicio...
Civil cases in Spain The other day I stumbled across a good resource for legal translators here. It explains civil procedure in Spain and defines and gives English translations for some of the key...
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Dahl’s Law Dictionary — a legal dictionary with a unique approach
I could have called this post “the review that made me buy a legal dictionary” because that’s exactly what the following words made me do: At last, a Spanish/English law dictionary that acknowledges...
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Juries in Spain and the President of Valencia’s new suits
Trial by jury In the common law world, trial by jury is closely associated with the notion of receiving a fair trial. Despite its faults, they say, it’s the best way of serving justice. And even though...
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The expat approach to translation: When not to translate a word
An expat chat When you listen to expats talking together about their new country of residence, sometimes you hear strange words pop up. This is usually the result of what you could call the expat...
View ArticleWhat’s an escrache?
An escrache is what you do when politicians aren’t listening to your pressure group—not even to your rallies, proposals for acts of parliament and other methods for exerting public pressure. First seen...
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Do you section articles or break sections into articles?
One common translation problem when translating Spanish legislation into English is whether to translate artículo literally as “article” or use its legal English functional equivalent, “section”....
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The rule of law / estado de derecho can of worms
Estado de derecho is often translated as “rule of law”, but the terms are not exact equivalents, as O’Donnell states in this paper that develops the concept of a “democratic rule of law”: Advancing...
View ArticleDaños doesn’t equal damages and the difference between damage and damages
Most of the time, daños means “damage”, in singular. What, then, is “damages” in Spanish? Usually something like indemnizaciones por daños y perjuicios, literally, “compensation for loss and damage”,...
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