Legal Terminology

This book focuses on legal concepts from the dual perspective of law and terminology. While legal concepts frame legal knowledge and take center stage in law, the discipline of terminology has traditionally been about concept description. Exploring topics common to both disciplines such as meaning, conceptualization and specialized knowledge transfer, the book gives a state-of-the-art account of legal interpretation, legal translation and legal lexicography with special emphasis on EU law. The special give-and-take of law and terminology is illuminated by real-life legal cases which demystify the ways courts do things with concepts. This original approach to the semantics of legal concepts is then incorporated into the making of a legal dictionary, thus filling a gap in the theory and practice of legal lexicography. With its rich repertoire of examples of legal terms in different languages, the book provides a blend of theory and practice, making it a valuable resource not only for scholars of law, language and lexicography but also for legal translators and students.

The relationship between de jure and de facto judicial independence is much debated in the literature. Some studies find no relationship between the formal rules governing the structure of the judiciary and its de facto independence. Other studies find a significant correlation between de jure and de facto judicial independence, with one study even touting de jure judicial independence as the most powerful predictor of de facto judicial independence. This paper sets out to explain these divergent findings by reassessing the relationship between de jure and de facto judicial independence using data on de jure judicial independence from the Comparative Constitutions Project and a new measure of de facto judicial independence from Linzer and Staton. The resulting analysis addresses many of the empirical problems in the existing literature, providing a robust test of the effect of de jure judicial independence on de facto judicial independence. Our findings indicate that rules governing the selection and removal of judges are the only de jure protections that actually enhance judicial independence in practice. This effect is strongest in authoritarian regimes and in contexts with checks on executive
authority.

What does it take for lawyers and others to think or talk about the same legal topic—e.g., defamation, culpability? We argue that people are able to think or talk about the same topic not when they possess a matching substantive understanding of the topic, as traditional metasemantics says, but instead when their thoughts or utterances are related to each other in certain ways. And what determines the content of thoughts and utterances is what would best serve the core purposes of the representational
practice within which the thought or utterance is located. In thus favoring a “relational model” in metasemantics, we share Ronald Dworkin’s goal of explaining fundamental legal disagreements, and also his reliance on constructive interpretation.But what we delineate is a far more general and explanatorily resourceful metasemantics than what Dworkin articulated, which also bypasses some controversial implications for the nature of law that Dworkin alleged.

The paper deals with terminological issues in legal translation. The author has researched the process of establishing equivalents for partially equiv- alent terminology, using the parametrical approach to legal translation. The research consists of the terminological analysis of the texts of mediation regula- tions formulated in Chinese and Polish. The objective was to establish transla- tional equivalents in the case of significant differences between the legal systems of the above mentioned linguistic area. The research was financed from the research grant no. 2012/07/E/HS2/00678, titled: Parameterisation of legilin- guistic translatology in the scope of civil law and civil procedure awarded by the National Science Centre of the Republic of Poland (Sonata Bis program).
Determining the acceptability of functional equivalents in the selected lin- guistic area is possible by comparison of their semantics with the legal structure in different legal systems and cultures. The author investigates if attributing properties from dimensions relevant in translation to mediation law terms can be helpful in the process of translation.
Keywords: legal Chinese, legal terminology, mediation in China, legal translation

In stating that ether is not a security, the SEC has suggested that the 'decentralization' of a blockchain system may have legal consequences. This paper examines the common ways 'decentralization' is used in blockchain discourse, arguing that it is generally used to suggest that the systems are resilient and lack concentrated power centers. The paper critically examines the claims of 'decentralization,' providing examples of actions by core developers and miners within crypto systems that undermine claims of decentralization. Finally, the paper's core contribution is to examine the consequences of uncritically applying the term 'decentralized' to blockchain systems and making legal judgments based on it. The paper argues that in suggesting that blockchain systems lack sites of centralized power, the term "decentralized" in effect functions as a liability shield for those operating the systems (developers and miners), creating what I call a "Veil of Decentralization" and giving a core benefit of organizational law to participants in these systems without accompanying obligations. Further, misunderstanding the power dynamics within blockchain systems can lead to faulty risk assessments, in that we may view the tokens of these systems as less malleable than they actually are. This errant risk assessment affects direct uses of the tokens as well as any financial products that use them as infrastructure, and may affect our understanding of them as commodities or money.

This paper aims to determine the extent to which a corpus-based, phraseological  approach can be effectively applied to discriminate among near-synonymous, semantically-related terms which often prove troublesome when translating legal texts. Based on a substantial multi-genre corpus of American legal texts, this study examines the collocational patterns of four legal terms ‘breach’, ‘contravention’, ‘infringement’ and ‘violation’, first in the genre of contracts and then in the multi-genre context of the entire corpus. The findings highlight the area of overlap as well as specificity in the usage of these terms. While collocational constraints can be argued to play an important  disambiguating role in the semantic and functional analysis  of both source and target text items carried out by translators prior to the interlingual translation, this study emphasizes the applicability of the phraseological approach to English being the source text for translation.

Abstract. The author intends to present evolutionary and revolutionary changes in legal terminology. Legal terminology changes as a result of language usage, technological development, political and social changes and even economy reasons. The following research methods have been applied: the terminological analysis of the research material (empirical observation, analysis of comparable texts and parametric approach to legal terminology comparison) and the analysis of pertinent literature. The research material included legislation from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada and Australia. The author focuses on terminological changes resulting from social transformations. Selected terms and their transformation in respect to meaning and form are elaborated on in the paper. Finally, the author draws conclusions that translation of such terminology should aim at communication precision and many of them may be false friends in interlingual communication.

Este artículo presenta de una manera práctica el proceso de recopilación y adquisición terminológica mediante la herramienta FunGramKB Term Extractor. Analizaremos paso a paso cómo, partiendo de un corpus de textos, obtenemos y definimos un conjunto de términos especializados representativos de un área temática concreta. La importancia de la adquisición terminológica es doble: por un lado, los términos especializados servirán como sustrato lingüístico, tanto para la definición de conceptos como para la creación de subontologías vinculadas a la ontología nuclear de la base de conocimiento FunGramKB; en segundo lugar, el trabajo terminológico permitirá no sólo el poblamiento conceptual de un dominio terminológico, sino también la creación de glosarios y diccionarios especializados para labores traductológicas o didácticas.

The article discusses terminology mining on a small scale as used by legal freelance translators in practice, and recent developments in this area. Major properties of legal
terms are discussed from the Cognitive Linguistics perspective where terms are seen as prompts that activate background knowledge structures. Next various resources are presented, including the most traditional ones, i.e. dictionaries, to more recent online and electronic resources such as googling, and discussion forums. Their major advantage is reduction of search time, increased functionality of translation and insight into how other translators have tackled a similar terminological problem before (established
equivalents).

There is no denying that a change in the languages and cultures of European law is taking place. Indeed, many scholars speak of a hybridization of legal languages in the EU under the influence of EU legislation (e.g. Koskinen, 2000; Mori, 2011) and the emergence of a new European legal culture due to the Europeanisation of law (Graziadei, 2015). Exploring the interfaces of law, language and culture in the EU, this paper places emphasis on the role of English as a lingua franca in the EU in conceptualizing a common EU legal culture. The alleged neutrality of English and the importance of neutral terminology in EU legal drafting are examined against the backdrop of autonomous concepts of multilingual EU law. Arguing that the relationship of EU and national legal culture should not be framed in terms of opposites, but rest on the ideas of integration and synthesis, the author draws an analogy between the concepts of EU legal culture – construed as “law in action” – and EU citizenship, underlining the important role of the Court of Justice of the EU in shaping EU law and developing autonomous concepts.

The present book is a part of the research project in legilinguistic translatology, entitled: ‘Parametrisation of legilinguistic translatology in the scope of civil law and civil procedure’. Financial support was provided by the National Science Centre of the Republic of Poland (Sonata Bis Programme — research grant no. DEC-2012/07/E/HS2/00678, which enabled us to finance the research into the Polish-Greek language pair.
The basic assumptions for the parametric approach to the comparison of legal terminology in legal translation are presented in Chapter I. Legilinguistics, understood here as legal linguistics, is the discipline devoted to the nature, development and usage of legal language, while legilinguistic translatology, as a subdiscipline of translatology, concerns itself with the theory and practice of the translation of legal texts. As legilinguistic translatology is subdivided into theoretical and practical translatology, the present study is categorised as an investigation in the practical field. However there are some references to theoretical legilinguistic translatology also. The point of departure is the paradigm of legal communication, where the source text (here also called the ‘translandive text’) are Polish statutes in the area of civil law, the source-text author is the Polish lawmaker, the translation is a legal text (here also called the ‘translantive text’), the recipient is a Greek legal professional or judicial authority. The author and the recipient of the potential translation are both members of the professional legal communicative community, and simultaneously the author of the text is a member of the communicative community of the Polish language, while the recipient of the potential translation is a member of the Greek-language communicative community.
The research methodology is presented in Chapter II. The parametric comparative analysis takes as a point of departure terms excerpted from Polish civil law statutes, i.e. the Civil Code (Kodeks Cywilny) and the Code of Civil Procedure (Kodeks Postępowania Cywilnego), here also called ‘translandive units’.  They are compared with Greek terms, which, first of all, come from Greek civil law statutes, i.e. the Civil Code (Αστικός Κώδικας [Astikos Kodikas]) and the Code of Civil Procedure Κώδικας Πολιτικής Δικονομίας [Kodikas Astikis Dikonomias]). If they are not present in statutes, they are excerpted from other legal genres, and, ultimately, if they are not present in other legal genres, either, then, they are excerpted from other lects (e.g. LSPs, vernacular lect) or potentially coined by the translator. The very first step of comparative analysis focuses on the meaning of the terms in a legal context. This is followed by analysis of the source-text unit compared with the translantive text (target text) in the context of the relevant dimensions of the terms. The dimensions are understood as a set of homogeneous properties that are used to calculate the distance between the compared terms. The set of minimal dimensions, which allow us to calculate the similarities and differences between the compared terms, comprises: genre, lect, branch of law, sub-branch of law and optional dimensions. The presumed objective of the comparative analysis is to determine: 1) lack of distance, where the compared terms can be recognised as synonyms; 2) short distance; where the compared terms can be recognised as translational equivalents; 3) significant distance, where compared terms cannot be recognised as translational equivalents, and there is a need to compensate for the lack of common dimensions; 4) lack of possible calculation because there is no term that could be compared on the basis of the aforementioned dimensions and their properties. Research material comprises the basic normative acts of Polish and Greek substantive and procedural civil law.
Firstly, the relevant dimensions are presented in hierarchical order (Chapter III); then, they are applied to calculate the distance between Polish and Greek civil law terms. They are investigated from the perspective of the relations of convergence (Chapter IV), polysemy (Chapter V), complementarity (Chapter VI), cognate words and potential false friends (Chapter VII), imprecise or flexible meaning (Chapter VIII), euphemisms and metaphors (Chapter IX). Semantic-lexical relations are investigated from the intralingual and interlingual points of view, within the framework of the language of Polish and Greek civil law.
Since comparative analysis of Polish and Greek terms is accompanied by certain directives of particularistic Polish-Greek legilinguistic translatology, under the relevant postulates of general legilinguistics, they are used within the translation algorithm. It should be stressed that the algorithm is presumed to be a set of actions executed in a certain order in order to achieve a certain result. Then, the translational algorithm based on parametric calculation of distance between compared legal terms is applied, and the explanation scheme is given (Chapter X).
In conclusion the results of the research are presented analytically and subsequently discussed in Chapter XI, with concluding notes are provided from the perspective of: 1) translation practice, and 2) lexicography and terminography in reference to LSP lexicography.

The present paper investigates three terms that were all used to refer to acts of writing in the early imperial administration: shu 書 , xie 寫 , and shu 署. Based on an analysis of their usage in administrative and legal texts, it illustrates the semantic differences of these terms, which also bear implications for our understanding of the production and use of administrative documents.

It is widely accepted that terminological minimum is a practical means used for the selection of specialist vocabulary to be taught at various proficiency levels in LSP courses. This popular understanding of the notion renders it similar to the concept of lexical minimum; from the didactic perspective, the two notions seem to largely overlap, being in fact vocabulary lists based mainly on the frequency parameter. However, this picture has largely obscured the true ontological status of the two concepts, and it was not until only recently that the notion of lexical minimum was defined in a more comprehensive way, bringing to light some of its most salient characteristics. Likewise, it seems necessary to redefine the notion of the terminological minimum, if only on account of the specific nature of the lexical unit included in them, i.e. the term. The current paper attempts to elucidate the notion in question and to provide a methodological framework for the compilation of a modern terminological minimum.

By popular definition, lexical minimum is a useful glottodidactic tool representing a selection of vocabulary to be taught at various language proficiency levels. Practically speaking, such minimums take the form of wordlists, extracted on frequency bases and drafted separately for each educational stage. However, the nature of language acquisition as well as the teaching/learning processes call for a much broader view of the lexical minimum, encompassing its primary, and possibly fundamental, meaning as a lexical competence of an individual and a conceptual measure for its expansion and evaluation. It is therefore claimed that the existing concept of lexical minimum as an exclusively didactic tool is outdated and needs redefining. Moreover, the methodology for a lexical minimum compilation should be revised, mainly on account of flawed compilation procedures applied by some authors. Accordingly, the aim of the present paper is to address some of the issues outlined by clarifying the notion of lexical minimum anew, discussing its multifarious characteristics and suggesting some methodological solutions to its construction.

The paper discusses the problem of translating selected Civil Procedure terminology from Greek into Polish and from Polish into Greek. The research material includes corpora of normative acts and more precisely those, which regulate Civil Procedure of Poland, Greece and the Republic of Cyprus. The research methodology is based on the concept of parameterisation, according to which the legal linguistic reality becomes axiomatic. Then the set of relevant dimensions and parameters is extracted. The set of parameters are a tool where certain information is given: yes/no/none and thus a clear result of comparison between legal system bond terminology can be drawn up. The results of this comparative analysis provide highly regulated and available translation equivalents, which are essential when legal translation is performed within the frame of legal reality. Selected examples of use of these equivalents are given when discussing the results.

The approach to legal terms of art (or technical legal terms) form rhetorical perspectives is based on their place in  legal discourse depending on the genre of the text. The division of legal texts by genres, proposed in the article, is grounded in Russian theory of slovesnost’, which was in the core of education in Russia in the second half of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries and was later developed in the works by Soviet professor of linguistics Yuri Rozhdestvensky and his students of rhetoric, philology and cultural studies.  Law as a discipline in which ordinary words and terms of art behave in a different way that in other sciences poses many questions before the researchers, and these questions can only be resolved by using interdisciplinary approach, where rhetoric and theory of slovesnost’ provide one of the possibilities. The main legal genre of written prose is a normative act, that is why special attention is paid to the use of the terms in statutes. Different behavior of terms of art in texts of different genres is noted. Analysis of polysemy and homonymy in statutory texts and investigation of legal terms versus terms in other sciences is made. Special attention is paid to technical  legal terms, which have different definitions in different branches of law, to legal definitions, which have different meaning in law and other sciences, to terms of “general science” (such as ‘assimilation’, ‘operation’, ‘balance’, etc.) and to those words, which can be used in legal texts in their ordinary or terminological meaning (e.g. ‘agent’, ‘defender’). A distinction will be drawn between the technical legal terms in legal theory and technical legal terms, which found their definitions in statutory texts or regulations.

LEGAL TEXT AS A HYPERTEXT: INTERTEXTUALITY OF TRANSLATED INTERNATIONAL LAW RELATED TO TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS
Abstract: The paper examines the intertextuality of translated legislation with a case study of international legal instruments combating trafficking in human beings. The instruments come from three systems (United Nations, Council of Europe and European Union) and are interrelated both by explicit
references and implicit textual quotes, the latter being most evident in uniform definitions of trafficking in all the documents. The paper identifies four types of relations in translation, i. e. 1) relations between source texts, 2) relation between the source text and the target text, 3) relations between existing translations, and 4) relations between the target text and target-language legislation. Drawing on Mattila’s metaphor of a legal text as a hypertext, the author shows that translation creates a non-symmetrical hypertext due to partial distortion of interrelations between source texts on the one hand and through new
intertextual relations due to recontextualisation and lack of standarisation, on the other hand. The intertextual relations in translation have been found to be more complex and less predictable.

Abstrakt: Artykuł analizuje zjawisko intertekstualności tekstów prawnych w tłumaczeniu na przykładzie powiązanych ze sobą dokumentów międzynarodowych z zakresu handlu ludźmi (ONZ, Rada Europy i UE). Zidentyfikowane cztery rodzaje relacji występujące w przypadku tłumaczeń: 1) relacja pomiędzy tekstem źródłowym a innymi zbliżonymi aktami prawnymi w języku źródłowym; 2) relacja pomiędzy tekstem źródłowym a docelowym; 3) relacja pomiędzy tekstem docelowym a wcześniejszymi tłumaczeniami powiązanych aktów; 4) relcja pomiędzy tekstem docelowym a aktami prawnymi kraju docelowego. W części analitycznej zbadano szczegółowo powiązania między dokumentami źródłowymi, spójność tekstu docelowego z poprzednimi tłumaczeniami oraz jego dopasowanie tekstowe, analizując tłumaczenia niemal identycznej w języku angielskim definicji handlu ludźmi. Korzystając z metafory hipertekstu Mattili, autorka dowodzi, iż wbrew postawionej hipotezie tłumaczenie tworzy niesymetryczny hipertekst, częściowo zamazujący relacje między tekstami źródłowymi i kreujący nowe zależności intertekstualne na skutek rekontekstualizacji, zniekształceń wynikłych podczas procesu tłumaczenia, braku standaryzacji ekwiwalentów, czynników idiosynkratycznych i (zbyt) indywidualnych decyzji tłumaczy. Relacje intertekstualne w tłumaczeniu wydają się być bardziej złożone i mniej przewidywalne.

Based on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (TEC), our article proposes a conceptual representation of the linguistic markers in the legal discourse, namely the connectors used to build the logical relationships of the hypothesis and effect that are representative for this type of discourse. The working instrument for the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the corpus is the software Tropes, which enabled us to obtain the diagnosis of the style of the text, the categorization of the words, terminological extraction as well as the identification of logical connectors. The conclusion is that the various hypothetical values are rendered in the legal discourse by structures with two or three hypotheses in the same phrase.
Keywords: legal linguistics, international treaty, linguistic marker, logical connector, discursive gender

Cuando los especialistas en Derecho alimentario utilizamos el español en nuestras comunicaciones (orales o escritas) disponemos de dos expresiones diferenciadas para referirnos a dos tipos de productos también distintos: los productos alimenticios y los productos alimentarios. Se trata de una posibilidad que no nos ofrecen otros idiomas europeos y que no siempre sabemos utilizar adecuadamente…

Véase: http://ceeudeco3.blogspot.com.es/2011/02/redeco-revista-electronica-de-derecho.html

Terminology aims primarily at elaborating standardized notions for the various complex concepts within specialized fields, intending to separate clearly defined technical terms from general lexical units that are used in every-day situations, with yet a wide range of vocabulary, that is specialized to some extent but cannot be delimited by terminological standards, emerging in between (ten Hacken 2010, 2015). For legal experts, for instance, the elaboration of precisely determined legal terms contributes to an overall specific understanding of legal concepts regardless of the possible ambiguities the same term may have in a general setting. At the same time, a variety of legal vocabulary, referred to as standards juridiques (Bernard, 2010), leaves room for interpretation within this highly specialized field.
When it comes to legal translation, a thorough knowledge of the source and target legal systems becomes indispensable in order to transfer a legal text or a single legal term into another language (Griebel 2013). This knowledge poses a prerequisite for the comparison of legal systems as the search for a – generally (highly) approximative – equivalence in the target system is the key to allow the recipient to access the source text, which is subjected to a legal system that is unknown to her or him (De Groot 1999). The relevance of knowledge in the human processing of language in general, but also in specialized contexts, has been tackled and highlighted in the context of frame semantics arguing that specific knowledge segments, called frames, are activated during a recipient’s hearing or reading of language that enable them to understand the meaning, context and connotations, if any, of the sentence (Fillmore 1976).
Though the FrameNet project (Fillmore/Atkins 1998) usually applies frame semantics to general language, excluding specialized fields (Faber 2005), the relevance of frames can also be linked to legal translation, specifically to the transfer of legal terminology where the ‘mainstream’ – so called wüsterian – organization and classification of terminology is often insufficient to provide the translator with knowledge for specific contexts only on the basis of necessary and sufficient conditions as they are encapsulated in classical terminological definitions. On the one hand, frame semantics has already been introduced to legal discourse analysis (Vogel 2015) and presented as crucial with regard to the interpretation of statutes (Busse 2002). On the other hand, Faber et al. (2005) has elaborated a frame-based terminology conception for the structuring of specialized technology-oriented fields. This presentation argues for a merging of both perspectives, proposing a structuring of legal terminology from a frame-semantic point of view to allow an overall understanding of contextualized legal terms and the detecting of equivalences in the target language when it comes to legal translation.
This will be exemplified on the basis of the German and French legal systems and languages, namely on procedural law and the constitution of courts, two legal subfields that differ between states and jurisdictions. Frames are proposed as knowledge segments for the understanding, comparison and transfer of legal terminology. To give just one example, the translation of the French concept of tribunal judiciaire into the German legal system requires the translator to refer to various specialized knowledge segments in the source language. For one, an understanding of the organization of courts within that system, which constitutes an entire subarea of law, and the positioning of that specific court becomes key to comprehend the relationship to other legal institutions within the same area. Civil procedure can be construed as another frame within the law where courts play an important role. In this case, the knowledge referring to appellate procedures which allow courts to be divided into different levels becomes relevant in certain situations where the French court of original jurisdiction in civil matters may experience appealable errors in its procedure or court judgment. As the amount in controversy may limit a case to a so called tribunal de proximité or chambre détachée de proximité, it is seen as another relevant factor of knowledge for the understanding of the competence of the court.
Various knowledge elements are evoked when dealing with a legal term, the relevance of which can vary according to the two legal subareas that the term is used in. The legal
comparison process requires detecting an equivalent legal term in the target system, leading to a similar structuring of specialized terms in the German legal system, as is the case here. The specialized term Amtsgericht refers to a similar court institution in Germany, that is subject to approximately the same classification as the French court. However, its relationship to other institutions, the amount of controversy and cases that belong to the court’s specific subject-matter jurisdiction, among other elements, differ from the French system and constitute necessary knowledge segments for the translator for her or his assessment of the level of equivalence between these two legal concepts, while taking into account that, as opposed to other specialized fields that are mostly universal (Arntz et al. 2014), a full equivalence is generally impossible in legal translation as soon as different systems are involved.
The areas of civil procedure and court constitution will be used as research examples for the suggested frame-based terminology in specialized legal discourse. The linking that has already been established by Faber et al. (2005) pleading for a dynamic process-oriented frame-based organization, premised on Coastal Engineering, which comprises ‘dynamic process’ as one of its descriptive elements (Faber et al. 2005), will be used as a precedent and basis for procedural law and other areas of law. This paper will present a structuring of frames for the terminology described above according to agent, process and patient/result and description templates.

إن دراسة المصطلحات القانونية الأجنبية ونقلها، ليس بالأمر الهين، إنه عمل يحتاج الإلمام باللغة العربية واللغة
الأجنبية، ليس هذا فقط بل يجب معرفة المصطلحات في لغة التخصص، التي هي في بحثنا هذا "القانون"، كما تجب
أحيانا معرفة النظام القانوني الموجود في كل بلد لإكمال المهمة.
الهدف من دراستنا هو الوقوف على مدى دقة وموضوعية المصطلحات الاجنبية والعربية في التقنينات الصادرة
باللغتين العربية والفرنسية.
النتائج التي توصلنا اليها هي ان الترجمة الحرفية اساءت الى المصطلحات القانونية في التشريعات الجزائرية، لكنها
ليست العامل الوحيد الذي أدى إلى البعد عن الدقة والموضوعية في التشريعات الجزائرية، فتباينت العوامل بين الترجمة
الحرفية واستعمال بعض المصطلحات كمترادفات وغرابة البعض الآخر عن اللغة العربية.


The study and transfer of legal terms is not easy. It is a work that requires familiarity with the translated language and the language to which we translate terms. Furthermore, it is necessary to know the legal terms to complete the task.
The aim of our study is to determine the extent of accuracy and objectivity of Arab and French legal terms in Algerian codes, issued in the Arabic and French languages.
Our findings are that literal translation is mistranslating and it is not the only factor that led to the lack of accuracy and objectivity in Algerian codes , but also, the use of some terms as synonyms, while they have different meanings, and also using of words that are strange to the Arabic language

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has often been hailed as
an engine of European integration. Entrusted with the task of securing the uniform interpretation of the law of the European Union—
among other functions—the ECJ makes use of comparative law for
a variety of purposes. The very composition of the Court and its peculiar linguistic regime make the Court a major comparative law
laboratory. Under the Treaties, the Court is explicitly authorised to resort to comparative law as a method of judicial interpretation with
regard to certain aspects of European law. But comparative law is
an essential tool for the Court in several other contexts as well. This
article is the occasion to take a closer look at the role that comparative law plays in the development of the jurisprudence of the Court,
and to showcase some salient applications of it. Quite often, the
Court limits references to comparative law arguments to a few lines
in its judgments. Nonetheless, comparisons that go far beyond the
merely technical aspects of the law are part and parcel of the everyday business of the Court. Even when the language of comparative
law is not overtly spoken, those comparisons define the ethos of the
European Union, and show how the Union sets out to challenge, and
change, the laws of the Member States.

Abstract. In this paper, the morphological series criminal infraction belonging to the language of the criminal law is studied. In this series, the Spanish noun delito (crime) behaves as the leader of the series, which implies a reorganization of the remaining members of the genetic family. If some of these members undergo restructuring of etymological hierarchy relationships, others undergo changes of meaning which have led to the creation of unattended senses capable of breaking the tendency to univocality that special languages demand.

Uloga jezika i prevođenja u izradi višejezičnoga zakonodavstva EU-a po-taknula je mnoge rasprave među pravnicima i jezikoslovcima. Usprkos tomu, malobrojni su interdisciplinarni pristupi utemeljeni u pravu EU-a, poredbeno-me pravu i teoriji prevođenja koji bi omogućili dublje razumijevanje procesa donošenja i tumačenja višejezičnoga zakonodavstva te uloge jezika i prevođe-nja u tim procesima. Kako kaže akademik Jakša Barbić, pravnicima nedostaje znanje koje imaju jezikoslovci, a jezikoslovcima znanje koje imaju pravnici. 1 U knjizi Legal Integration and Language Diversity. Rethinking Translation in EU Law-making, koju je izdavač Oxford University Press objavio 2018. godine, autor C. J. W. Baaij s lakoćom se bavi i pravnim i jezikoslovnim temama. Prevođenje zakonodavstva EU-a ističe kao opreku između, s jedne strane, nužnosti pravne integracije u smislu usklađivanja i ujednačavanja prava te poštovanja načela jezične raznolikosti pod velom institucijske višejezičnosti, s druge. U tom svje-tlu treba (re)definirati ne samo cilj, nego i strategije prevođenja zakonodavstva EU-a kako bi ono bilo što učinkovitiji kotačić u mehanizmu pravne integracije te kako bi se smanjila odstupanja u značenju pojedinih jezičnih verzija. U knji-zi se objedinjuju mnoge teme koje će biti zanimljive praktičarima, sveučilišnim nastavnicima te znanstvenicima, ali i studentima kao izvor znanja o pravu, jeziku i višejezičnosti. Knjiga obuhvaća sedam poglavlja i dva priloga. Prvi prilog sadržava popis predmeta koji se tiču jezičnih odstupanja u razdoblju od 1960. do 2010. Drugi je prilog anonimizirani popis intervjua koje je autor proveo s prevoditeljima, terminolozima te pravnicima lingvistima u institucijama EU-a, a pružaju dra-gocjen pogled iznutra u prevoditeljske prakse.

Assessment is one of the major aspects of any educational setting. As Genesee and Upshur (1996) stated that it is the process of teaching and learning in order to develop students‟ success as well as the achievement of institutions (p.1). Educators utilize a variety of tests in order to meet the outcomes of the course. Since communicative approach is widely used in many classrooms traditional tests have been replaced by alternative assessment. It is evident that tests should align with learners‟ level, purpose, course objectives and topics. Therefore, modification of tests is highly required in a bid to obtain ultimate objectives of the course. This article is dedicated to the assessment and modification of the test taken at University of law.