Role of legal translation in proceedings

- before the Court of Justice

A. References for preliminary rulings

Between the registration of the request for a preliminary ruling at the Registry of the Court of Justice and delivery of the judgment, the Directorates-General for Legal Translation translate the following documents:

• Request for a preliminary ruling, drafted in the language of the national court or tribunal (which becomes the language of the case) and translated into all official languages.

• Notice of the request for a preliminary ruling, drafted in the language of the case and translated into all official languages. This notice is published in the Official Journal.

• Written observations, drafted in various official languages and translated into the language of the case and into French, the language of deliberation.

• Opinion, drawn up by the Advocate General, usually in his or her own language, and translated into the language of the case and into the language of deliberation. Opinions are translated into all other official languages for publication.

• Judgment, drafted in French and translated into all official languages. The date for delivery of the judgment is set bearing in mind that the judgment must be delivered in the language of the case.

• Notice including the operative part of the judgment, drafted in French and translated into all official languages. This notice is published in the Official Journal.

B. Direct actions

Translation of the following documents:

• Application, defence, reply and rejoinder, drafted in the language of the case and translated into French, the language of deliberation.
• Notice of the action, drafted in the language of the case and translated into all official languages. This notice is published in the Official Journal.
• Statements in intervention lodged by the Member States in one of the official languages and translated into the language of deliberation and the language of the case.
• Opinion, drawn up by the Advocate General, usually in his or her own language, and translated into the language of the case and into the language of deliberation. Opinions are translated into all other official languages for publication.
• Judgment drafted in French and translated into all official languages. The date for delivery of the judgment is set bearing in mind that the judgment must be delivered in the language of the case.
• Notice including the operative part of the judgment, drafted in French and translated into all official languages. This notice is published in the Official Journal.

C. Appeals

The necessary translations so far as appeals are concerned are largely the same as for direct actions. In appeals, however, the written procedure ends, save by express authorisation, with the response.

- before the General Court

The necessary translations for proceedings before the General Court are essentially the same as for direct actions before the Court of Justice, with the necessary adjustments made for the specificities of this court.

In addition to their translation work, all lawyer-linguists perform a variety of tasks: legal analysis in collaboration with the registries and other departments of the Court (including the drafting of summaries for certain requests for preliminary rulings), terminological research or collaboration with lawyer-linguists of other language units on questions of national law.