La langue en héritage: réflexions sur l’uniformisation des droits en Europe

The willed interaction of laws in Europe entails an interaction of languages. Yet, the defenders of uniformization of laws ignore the linguistic stakes in a way that can only summon the traductologist. Given his epistemic assumptions, the latter is however led to react in a way that lawyers will readily find subversive. Sensitive to the fact that law is carried by language, the traductologist explains how lawyers account neither for language’s persistence nor for its transience. For these two admittedly paradoxical reasons, the traductologist argues that lawyers largely underestimate the impact of language on the ongoing process of uniformization of laws. Undoubtedly, the traductologist’s reaction to the uniformization agenda stands in contrast to the translator’s traditional image, which is that of a servant or mediator. But the translator has been invisible long enough and should now be disposed to criticize those normative texts that imply a linguistic diversity and yet postulate the univocity of meaning. Through his work, the traductologist emphasizes the immense value of interdisciplinarity, which alone permits a more sensitive understanding of the implications of uniformization of law.