Author:

Keywords:

quality in translation, legal translation

Abstract:

Qualetra: The implications of the transposition of Directive 64/2010 for the training and assessment of legal translators and practitioners Hendrik J. Kockaert1, Federica Scarpa2, Winibert Segers3, Frieda Steurs1 1KU Leuven, University of the Free State, 2Università degli Studi di Trieste, 3KU Leuven, Université Catholique de l’Ouest Between 2000 and 2007, the EU has registered significant increases in criminal proceedings involving a non-national (± 10%) resulting in rising costs of translation. According to estimates made by DG Justice in the Impact Assessment for the Directive on the right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings {COM(2009) 338 final}{SEC(2009) 916, pp. 18-19}, the need for fair and cost-efficient legal translations will increase significantly.. Qualetra aims at anticipating some serious challenges EU Member States will have to deal with after the transposition of Directive 2010/64/EU by proposing deliverables that are expected to cater for training and assessment needs experienced by legal translators specialising in the translation of European Arrest Warrants and by legal practitioners working with translators. With an EU-wide format of online training and testing, the project contributes towards facilitating transparent, cost-efficient criminal proceedings in EU courts, guaranteeing the rights of suspected and accused persons as stipulated in Directive 2010/64/EU. In practice, the project focuses on developing translation memories and multilingual terminology, relevant for the translation of European Arrest Warrants, and on developing EU-wide training programmes and testing procedures for legal translators and practitioners. This will have a positive impact on the training of legal translators and practitioners because they will have to interact efficiently with beneficiaries of legal translation services such as police, prosecutors, court staff, judges, lawyers and professionals providing victim support. This paper focuses in particular on the training and assessment work streams of the project, and will present research-based core curricula and training materials for legal translators and legal practitioners, testing, evaluation and assessment procedures, and materials for professionals in specific working conditions related to the translation of European Arrest Warrants and Essential Documents. References {COM(2009) 338 final}{SEC(2009) 916}. Impact Assessment document of the Proposal for a Framework Decision on the right to interpretation and to translation in criminal proceedings. Hertog, E. (2001). Aequitas. Access to Justice across Language and Culture in the EU. Antwerp: Lessius Hogeschool. PACTE. (2005). "Investigating Translation Competence: Conceptual and Methodological Issues", in: Meta : journal des traducteurs / Meta: Translators' Journal 50.2, p. 609-619. PACTE. (2009). "Results of the Validation of the PACTE Translation Competence Model: Acceptability and Decision Making", in: Across Languages and Cultures 10.2, p. 207-230. Waddington, C. (2001a). "Different Methods of Evaluating Student Translations: The Question of Validity", in Meta : journal des traducteurs / Meta: Translators’ Journal, 46.2, p. 311-325.