The case of Slovenia

Viktorija Osolnik Kunc

Court interpreters and sworn translators of legal language

Presentation overview

1. Legal provision2. Examination criteria for court interpreters in

Slovenia3. Data on court interpreters and sworn legal

translators4. Candidates for German court interpreters

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Legal Provisions on Court Interpreters and Legal Translators

Courts Act (Official Journal of the Rep. of Slovenia 19/1994)

Rules on Court Interpreters (Official Journal of the Rep. of Slovenia 94/2002)

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Definition of Court Interpreters in the Rules on Court Interpreters

Art. 2„Interpreters are people who were appointed for anunlimited mandate to translate spoken and writtenlanguage from Slovene into a foreign language,from a foreign language into Slovene and from aprimary foreign language into a secondary foreignlanguage in court proceedings and other cases,where a court interpreter is required. […]

(English translation)

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The 'Court interpreter' in Slovenia

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Court interpreter

90 % of all c. i. work as legal translators

10 % out of a 100 % of the appointed c. i. actually

work ascourt interpreters; courts or judges

respectively also invite (professional) interpreters

who are sworn in for a single hearing to participate

in a court hearing

How to become a Court Interpreter in Slovenia?

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Judicial Training CentreAmongst others the Judicial Training Centre is responsible for organizing preparatory legal seminars for court interpreters, assessors and evaluators, written and oral exams as well as appointing court interpreters and court experts (assessors & evaluators).

Contents of the Court Interpreters Exam

Preparatory legal seminar for candidates without legal education

Language seminar for all candidates Written exam of app. 6000 characters from Slo into

a foreign language (2 texts) and vice versa (2 texts) Oral exam in front of the examination board

Linguists – questioned by legal experts and a language examiner

Lawyers – questioned only by the language examiner7

Examination criteria for Court Interpreters in Slovenia I

Equivalence in Legal subject

Knowledge in the legal topicUnderstanding of the legal matter

Legal languageAdequate/correct choice of legal terminologyAdequate/correct choice of legal collocations/phrasesAdequate/correct language style

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Examination criteria for Court Interpreters in Slovenia II

Equivalence in Formal characteristics

seal, signature, handwritten remark etc. Text layout

Titles, paragraphs, tables, columns …

Language correctness Grammar Spelling

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Examination board

President (lawyer) Employee of the Ministry of Justice (lawyer) Language examiner (linguist or lawyer) Recording clerk

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Data on Sworn Court Interpreters

In Total: 874 court interpreters Language categories: 27 + 1

Lost – since 2007 no court interpreter for Danish Gained – since 2007 new language category for Bosnian

Specific categories: 6 Fraktur Flemish, Greek and New Greek, Serbo-Croatian, Sign language, Latin.

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LanguagesAlbanian Arabic BulgarianChinese Croatian CzechDutch English French

German Greek HungarianIranian Italian Japanese

Macedonian Polish PortugueseRumanian Russian Serbian

Slovak Spanish SwedishTurkish Ukraine UrduDanish Bosnian 12

Languages by representation241;28% 190:

22%

100;12% 76;

9%75;9% 56;

7%51;6%

38;4%

24;3%

050

100150200250300350

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Translation strategies

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Concept of Equivalence Functionalist concept (Skopos)

Text types• prescriptive• performative

Focus on major elements in a certified translation:

- SL legal culture- certification (seal+declaration)

Linguist Lawyer

Importance of correct understanding between two or more legal parties

Linguists´ and Lawyers´Translating Strategies

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Linguist SL Lawyer

TL1

Okrajno sodišče(Local Court) TL2

EquivalenceBezirksgericht

(Court of First Instance)

Amtsgericht(Lower District Court) Skopos

Urkunds-beamter(Registrar)

Equivalence zapisnikar(recording clerk)

javni uslužbenec, ki izdaja listine(official issueing

documents)

Descriptive translation

Candidates for Court Interpreters for German

– by sex and profession(1995 – 2009)

∑ = 102 Candidates for Court Interpreters for German

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52%

20%

6%

22% Female linguists

Female lawyers

Male linguists

Male lawyers

Candidates for Court interpreters for German

– by year

17

0

4

3

4

2

3

4

8

7

4

1

0

3

8

9

1

0

3

1

0

2

3

2

0

1 1

3

1

13

9

-2

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

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1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Num

ber

of C

.I.

Linguist Lawyer

Candidates for Court interpreters for German

– by language profession (1995 – 2009)

18%;11

7%;4

75%;45

BA in translation / MA in conference interpr.

BA in German studies

BA in German teaching

∑ = 60 Candidates for Court Interpreters for German

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Conclusions Foundation of the Slovene Association of Court

Interpreters and Sworn Translators Linguistic and legal seminars to members and interested

public Model for legal linguists

Knowledge transfer (law) Translation strategies (Equivalence / Skopos) Certification

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Proposed Approach to Legal Translation

Generalisieren

Differenzieren

Denken

VerstehenErkennen

Denkstil/Rechtskreis

System

Rechts-sprachen KulturRechts-

text

Beglaubigung eines Rechtstextes

BerufsethosTranskodierungs-

zirkel20

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of ArtsDepartment for German Studies

&Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia,

Judicial Training Center

viktorija.osolnik-kunc@guest.arnes.si

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