Legal Translation - Requirements
ISO 20771 specifies requirements for legal translation - ensuring accuracy, consistency, and professional standards in legal document translation.
- Legal Translation
- Document Accuracy
- Terminology Management
- Translator Competence
- Quality Assurance
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About ISO 20771:2020 - Legal Translation - Requirements
ISO 20771:2020 specifies requirements for legal translation - the translation of legal texts including legislation, regulations, contracts, court documents, legal opinions, notarial deeds, and other documents with legal effect. Legal translation is one of the most demanding specializations in the translation profession, requiring translators to possess not only linguistic competence but also knowledge of the legal systems and terminology of both source and target language jurisdictions.
The standard specifies competence requirements for legal translators that go beyond those in ISO 17100 (general translation services). Legal translators must demonstrate: professional-level linguistic competence in both source and target languages; knowledge of the legal system, legal terminology, and legal drafting conventions of the source language jurisdiction; knowledge of the legal system, legal terminology, and legal drafting conventions of the target language jurisdiction; research competence to identify and verify legal terminology and concepts; and subject-matter competence in the specific area of law relevant to the text being translated.
ISO 20771 specifies process requirements for legal translation covering pre-production activities (analysis of the source text, identification of legal systems involved, and agreement on translation specifications), the translation process (including research, terminology management, and quality checking), and post-production activities (revision by a second qualified legal translator and final verification).
A key concept in ISO 20771 is the distinction between legal equivalence and linguistic equivalence. Legal translators must not only find linguistically accurate equivalents for legal terms but must also identify the functionally equivalent legal concept in the target legal system - a task that requires deep knowledge of comparative law.
ISO 20771 is used by law firms, courts, notaries, government agencies, and translation service providers to establish quality standards for legal translation procurement. It is used alongside ISO 17100 (translation services), ISO 11669 (translation project framework), and ISO 20228 (legal interpreting).
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