Bill translated into plain English / Gesetzesentwurf aus der Amtssprache übersetzt
am 07.06.2006 von Transblawg
The British government wants to reform the coroner system and a bill is to be published next Monday ( June 12). From what the Times Online says, it’s going to be accompanied by a translation into plain English.
The Coroner Reform Draft Bill, published on Monday, will make legal history with an easy-to-understand interpretation of every clause running alongside the text. The simultaneous translation was requested by Harriet Harman, Constitutional Affairs Minister, who said that it was time that the public could read the laws passed in their name.
“Many ministers, let alone MPs, find Bills in the current form hard going, so I don’t know how on earth the public is expected to understand them,” she said.
The trouble with this kind of thing is that probably not everything can be said in plain English. But the draughtsmen are said to be ‘thrilled’ with their translation, and in addition to being easier to read, it also explains all the cross-references.
This could be very useful for translators who work out of English.
There was a session on plain English at Düsseldorf, and I was gradually working up to blogging it, but it’s a complex topic. So here are a few notes:
Andrew Hammel (who has been blogging on the same topics as me) presented an interesting paper on translating into plain legal English. The suggestions seemed radical to me, but the example he gave of one long sentence and a plainer version seemed less radical.
When you must translate such “convoluted and repetitious prose,” are you
permitted …
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