La formation en traduction juridique au Liban: une étude de terrain
Authors: Fahed Nadira , Sader Feghali Lina 
Published: September 2023

Legal Translation Training in Lebanon: A Field Study

This article presents the results of an empirical study focused on three major axes. The study was conducted in Lebanon on three main actors in the field of legal translation: translators, commissioners, and translation schools. It aims at highlighting the actual role that universities play in training competent legal translators capable of satisfying market needs in the field of legal translation. For this purpose, the study draws links between translators’ attitudes towards legal translation, commissioners’ attitudes towards the legal translation services available on the market, and the university training that translators receive in this field. The concurrent embedded strategy of mixed method research designs was adopted, whereby the primary quantitative method guides the study, and the qualitative method provides a supporting role. In effect, the first two axes of the study seek to collect quantitative data by way of two surveys. The first survey is addressed to translators holding a master’s degree in translation at the least, while the second survey targets the main commissioners of legal translation projects in Lebanon. As for the third axis, it seeks to collect qualitative data through interviews carried out with the heads of department of translation at the Lebanese universities which have been selected, based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, to take part in the study. The data collected from the first two axes of the study is analyzed in order to bring forward numerical and statistical results, while the analysis of the data collected from the third axis of the study highlights the areas of convergence as well as divergence between the different translation schools in Lebanon. The study shows a shortage of specialized legal translators of proven competence as compared to a high demand for legal translation in Lebanon. Legal translation commissioners, for their part, are reluctant to resort to translators and have no trust in their competence. In effect, the study underlines several weaknesses that translators in Lebanon suffer from when asked to translate legal texts, of which the ability to understand legal texts and reformulate them in the target language, the ability to compare different legal systems and the concepts relating to these systems, the understanding and use of specialized legal language, documentary research, and access to reliable legal resources. These results are due, at least in part, to the conditions of the training provided by universities in the field of legal translation. In fact, the results of the study underline an almost total lack of specialized training programs in legal translation as well as in all other fields of translation. Moreover, legal translation courses are overloaded, and the development of thematic, technological, and strategic competences, as well as research skills and competence in specialized legal language, is weak. Nevertheless, the study draws a positive correlation between translation schools investing in legal translator training and interest of both students and translation professionals in this field of translation. In light of the results of this empirical study, the gaps to be bridged in the existing translation programs are pinpointed in order for these programs to better respond to market needs. A partial solution to the underlined problem undoubtedly lies in establishing a targeted training program in legal translation, which combines translation, law, and linguistics and aims to train highly specialized legal translators.

legal translator; competence; specialized translation; translator training