Projects and Terminological Coordination Unit
The Projects and Terminological Coordination Unit mainly manages comparative multilingual legal terminology and oversees its implementation within the Court.
In practical terms, the Unit defines and coordinates terminology projects and puts in place procedures and mechanisms to improve the overall quality of texts. Its work supports all the Court’s services and their different needs, including translation, interpretation, drafting and comparing legal texts and concepts.
The Unit handles the pre-processing of documents to help lawyer-linguists, interpreters and those drafting documents in judicial proceedings to understand the concepts contained in the legal documents submitted to the Court. Understanding the concepts in the original texts helps Court staff translate, draft notes and write decisions.
The Unit also coordinates the legal terminology working group of the Judicial Network of the European Union (JNEU).
What is comparative multilingual legal terminology?
Understanding and handling legal texts in a professional context is no simple task – especially in the EU, where 27 national legal systems and 24 official languages coexist alongside the EU’s own legal system. Each of these legal systems has developed independently, each with its own concepts, ideas and terminology. Some legal systems may share the same language but the meaning of certain terms can vary from one system to the other. In other cases, one legal system may use a term that has no direct equivalent in other systems – or no equivalent at all.
When a judgment is translated, it has to be capable of being understood, not just linguistically, but legally, in all of these national legal systems. This means that not only words, but the very ideas and concepts contained in the judgments, must also be transposed.
As a result, one of the key challenges in this working environment is first understanding the terminology used in documents submitted to the Court of Justice and the General Court. Another challenge is finding the best way to express a legal concept when there is no direct equivalent and no suitable word in the target language.
This is where comparative multilingual legal terminology comes in.
The Projects and Terminological Coordination Unit works with colleagues throughout the Court to establish reliable and pertinent legal terminology to make case-law easier to access and understand in all EU languages. The results of research and discussions on the similarities and differences between legal systems are stored in a shared database. Where a national legal concept is successfully transposed – especially following detailed legal comparisons – it is recorded, together with all useful information, in a clear and structured way. Keeping a record of this research helps ensure that the work is not lost and that terminology remains consistent over time.
Why comparative multilingual legal terminology is important
Recording the results of the detailed legal research carried out by lawyer-linguists, terminologists and other staff ensures uniform and coherent use of terms.
The information is collected and stored in a terminological database that is organised into records, each representing a single legal concept. This helps lawyers, translators, interpreters and citizens to
- understand the concept
- place the concept in a clear context
- find out whether the concept exists in other legal systems and the term(s) that are used to express it
- identify the origin of a term
- access various references and examples of the term in use
- be aware of any potential pitfalls or problems related to the term
Comparative multilingual legal terminology management and pre-processing help to make use of the research carried out by the Court staff. This ensures the consistent use of terminology across different documents both within the same case and over time, as well as improves the overall quality of Court documents. It also speeds up the translation process, making it more efficient and cost-effective.
Accessing the Court’s Comparative Legal Terminology via IATE
The Court’s comparative multilingual legal terminology work is available to the public through an inter-institutional database called Interactive Terminology for Europe, known as IATE.
Each record mentions the EU institution or body that created it. Users can therefore search all records or narrow the search to terms specifically provided by the Court using the expanded search option.
To explore the Court’s comparative multilingual legal terminology, you can
For other questions, and to contact the Projects and Terminological Coordination Unit, you can email terminologie@curia.europa.eu.
