Legal Translation and Bilingual Law Drafting in Hong Kong: Challenges and Interactions in Chinese Regions

172 Pages·2020·2.284 MB·English

by  Clara Ho-yan Chan

Legal Translation and Bilingual
Law Drafting in Hong Kong
Legal Translation and Bilingual Law Drafting in Hong Kong presents a systematic
account from a cross-disciplinary perspective of the activities of legal translation
and bilingual law drafting in the bilingual international city of Hong Kong and
its interaction with Mainland China and Taiwan in the use of legal terminology.
The study mainly examines the challenges posed to English-Chinese translation
in the past three decades by elaborate drafting and terminological equivalence,
and offers educational and research solutions. Its primary goals are to create legal
Chinese that naturally accommodates common law concepts and statutes from
the English legal system and to reconcile Chinese legal terms from the different
legal systems adopted by Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan. The new
directions in legal translation and bilingual law drafting in Hong Kong will have
implications for other Chinese regions and for the world.
The book is intended for scholars, researchers, teachers and students of legal
translation and legal linguistics, legal translators, lawyers and legal practitioners
who are engaged in translation, as well as all persons who are interested in legal
language and legal translation.
Clara Ho-yan Chan is Associate Professor of the School of Humanities and
Social Science, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. Her research
interests focus on language and law, especially legal translation, legal terminology
and bilingual law drafting.
Routledge Studies in Chinese Translation
Series Editor: Chris Shei
Swansea University, UK
This series encompasses scholarly works on every possible translation activity
and theory involving the use of Chinese language. Putting together an important
knowledge base for Chinese and Westerner researchers on translation studies, the
series draws on multiple disciplines for essential information and further research
that is based on or relevant to Chinese translation.
A Discourse Analysis of News Translation in China
Liang Xia
Translating Chinese Art and Modern Literature
Edited by Yifeng Sun and Chris Song
An Overview of Chinese Translation Studies at the Beginning
of the twenty-first century
Past, Present, Future
Weixiao Wei
Lao She’s Teahouse and its Two English Translations
Exploring Chinese Drama Translation with Systemic
Functional Linguistics
Bo Wang and Yuanyi Ma
Legal Translation and Bilingual Law Drafting in Hong Kong
Challenges and Interactions in Chinese Regions
Clara Ho-yan Chan
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
languages/series/RSCT
Legal Translation and Bilingual
Law Drafting in Hong Kong
Challenges and Interactions in
Chinese Regions
Clara Ho-yan Chan
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Clara Ho-yan Chan
The right of Clara Ho-yan Chan to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-33590-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-33591-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-44346-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To my parents and all those who have built the beautiful
city of Hong Kong

Contents
List of tables and figures xi
Preface xii
Acknowledgments xv
1 Introduction: about this book 1
1.1 Background and purpose 1
1.1.1 Legal translation in Modern China 1
1.1.2 Legal translation in Hong Kong 2
1.2 Review and framework 5
1.2.1 Hong Kong: translation of English laws and
bilingual law drafting for the 1997 change of
sovereignty 5
1.2.2 Mainland China and Taiwan: legal globalisation 7
1.3 Terminology 10
1.3.1 Legal Chinese 10
1.3.2 Chinese legal terminology 11
1.3.3 Legal translation 13
1.4 Organisation and technicalities 15
1.4.1 Structure and limitations 15
1.4.2 Romanisation and convention 17
2 Challenges in legal translation: a language perspective 23
2.1 Europeanisation of Chinese 24
2.1.1 Lexical changes 24
2.1.2 Morpho-syntactic changes 25
2.1.2.1 Affixation 26
2.1.2.2 Conjunctions 26
2.1.2.3 Pronouns 27
2.1.2.4  Pre-nominal modifiers and embedding 
levels 27
viii Contents
2.1.2.5 Passive voice 28
2.1.2.6 Other types of syntactic change 28
2.2 Europeanisation of legal Chinese 29
2.2.1 Legislation 29
2.2.1.1 Lexicon 29
2.2.1.2 Syntax 34
(i) Huo (或) (or) . . . huo (或) (or) 34
(ii) Prepositions and prepositional
phrases 35
(iii) Underpunctuation 35
(iv) ‘Empty verb’ construction 36
(v) Shi . . . de (是 . . . 的)/wei . . . de
(為 . . . 的) construction 37
(vi) Excessive use of nouns 37
2.2.2 Judgments 39
2.2.3 Legal documents 40
2.2.4 Legal translation textbook 41
2.2.5 Responses from different sectors 44
3 Challenges in legal translation: a legal perspective 51
3.1 ‘Equivalence’ in Hong Kong bilingual legal terminology 51
3.2 Equivalence in Chinese legal terminology in three Chinese
regions 53
3.2.1 Five translation categories in terms of
equivalence 54
3.2.1.1 Category 1 (near equivalents)—one or
more similar foreign source term(s) with
same renditions of same/similar
meaning 55
3.2.1.2 Category 2 (near equivalents)—one or
more similar foreign source term(s)
with different renditions of same/similar 
meaning 55
3.2.1.3 Category 3 (partial or non-equivalents)—one
or more similar foreign source terms
with different renditions of different 
meanings 57
3.2.1.4 Category 4 (partial or non-equivalents)—
different foreign source terms with different 
renditions of different meanings (partial or 
non-equivalents) 59
3.2.1.5 Category 5 (non-equivalents)—
mistranslation 60
Contents ix
3.3 Case study of terminology in international agreements:
intellectual property rights in Mainland China, Taiwan and
Hong Kong 63
3.3.1 Introduction and methodology 63
3.3.2 ‘Layout-design’, its Chinese translations and the
measurement of equivalence (waiguan sheji
(外觀設計) vs dianlu buju (電路布局 (拓樸圖)) vs
butu sheji (布圖設計 (拓樸圖)) 64
3.3.2.1 Mainland China: waiguan sheji
(外觀設計) 66
3.3.2.2 Taiwan: dianlu buju (電路布局
(拓樸圖)) 67
3.3.2.3 Hong Kong: butu sheji (布圖設計
(拓撲圖)) 68
3.3.3 Summary and conclusion 70
3.4 Concluding remarks 71
4 Education in meeting challenges 74
4.1 Education and training: theory and practice 74
4.2  Broad and balanced approach: first lecture on legal 
translation 75
4.2.1 A broad approach: legal systems, legal traditions and
legal language 75
4.2.2 A balanced approach: views on the Chinese legal
system 77
4.3 Interdisciplinary approach: language and law 79
4.3.1 Case study: a legal knowledge-based translation
course for Hong Kong translation students 79
4.3.1.1 Background and aims 79
4.3.1.2 Design and contents 80
4.3.1.3 Feedback and reflections 84
4.3.2 Case study: an English-Chinese glossary of
terminology for Hong Kong law students 87
4.3.2.1 Background and aims 87
4.3.2.2 Design and contents 89
4.3.2.3 Feedback and reflections 91
4.3.3 Master’s programmes on language and law in three
regions 93
4.4 Training for legal professionals and legal translators 95
4.4.1 Government law drafters 96
4.4.2 A mini-survey: use of Chinese by lawyers and legal
translators 98
4.5 Concluding remarks 100