Law-in-Translation: An Assemblage in Motion

Law-in-translation, as it manifests itself in either oral or written form, can be usefully described as an assemblage in motion. Oscillating between the generic and the singular, legal translation has gradually affirmed a disciplinary identity of sorts vis-à-vis other well-established genres, such as literary translation or the translation of Scripture. Further, legal translation has been moving from the local to the ‘glocal’ scene. This neologism wishes to capture the idea that while law is more and more subject to translation on the European or international level, it remains unable to escape local forms of understanding. Finally, legal translation has been amplifying its semantic range from the literal to the metaphorical. Long confined to the transmission of oral or written statements across languages, law-in-translation features new instantiations as can be illustrated, for instance, through the ever-expanding circulation of legal concepts from one country to another and the re-formulation of law into economic language within international business relations.