Comparative multilingual legal

vocabulary

28 March 2011, Luxembourg

Caroline Reichling

Directorate general for Translation

Court of Justice of the European Union

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Context

In December 2008, the question was put

before the Court’s DGT by the

Publications Office

Could the Court of Justice contribute to

the creation of a multilingual legal

vocabulary (‘VJM’) for the various legal

systems of Member States of the

European Union?

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Context E-Justice Communication Portal one of the objectives of which is to

use IT to improve citizens’ access to justice

Aim of VJM: To make available to lawyers and EU citizens a multilingual documentary tool for indexing and consulting the documentary resources of national legal databases

The Court’s answer: feasibility test

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Two fields:

Rights of aliens and Family law

All languages, but not all systems

Feasibility test

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Two aspects managed in parallel:

terminological and documentary

Tool allowing users to find information

(documentary requirement, thesaurus)

and to understand it (terminological

requirement)

March 2009 / June 2010

Feasibility test

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24 lawyer linguists covering 24 legal

systems and 23 languages

Management team

2 lawyer linguists (preparatory work)

1 assistance team

1 assistant for IT support

1 coordinator

Human resources

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CuriaTerm (internal terminological

database)

Wiki for virtual discussions and proposals of new concepts

Excel for work follow-up and management of non-descriptors

Freemind for the construction of conceptual diagrams (trees)

Technical working environment

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Identification of specialised terminology

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Principal sources Legislation (national, EU and INT)

Travaux preparatoires

Case Law

Doctrine

International conventions and

agreements

Specialised reading material and

comparative law studies

Glossaries, dictionaries and thesaurus,

especially: Eurovoc & Tesauro

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Organisation of specialised concepts

(example: top-term «asile» (asylum)

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Recording terminological data within an internal database in a structured manner while respecting a main rule

Single-concept principle =

One record per concept

= The principle that a terminology record should deal with one concept only and that all data relating to a given concept should be consolidated on one record.

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Domains Cross references

Note

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Désignation(s) of the concept Terminological references

Origin: Legal system Context (when useful)

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Definition

Note

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Definition

Note

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Several designations for one concept Origin: sector and legal system

One preferred term by legal system

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(nd)

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NL: two legal systems

FORMULATION

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Terminological elements (precision,

relevance and reliability)

One preferred term by legal system and

not by language

Differences with a standard thesaurus

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Relationship «to be distinguished» Allows the saving of application notes

abandon d’enfant (The failure of a parent to provide any financial assistance to or communicate with a child over a period of time)

délaissement d’enfant (child abandonment, who is found abandoned)

Management of non-descriptor Only synonyms and variants within the same record

Differences with a standard thesaurus

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Management of non-descriptors

Recapitulation

«Words or expressions which denote, in

the natural language, the same concept or

equivalent concepts or concepts

considered, in the thesaurus language, as

equivalent to those represented by

descriptors. »

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Management of non-descriptors

Refinement of equivalence relationships between descriptors and non-descriptors other than synonyms:

antonyme (infidelity USE duty of fidelity)

narrower and national (PACS (FR) / civil partnership (UK) USE registered partnership (UE)

narrower and marginal (bigamy USE polygamous marriage)

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feminin equivalent (sister USE brother)

person (curator USE curatorship )

precoordination (paternal parentage USE parentage + father )

close (hearing of the child USE right of the child to be heard)

similar meanings (fiançailles / engagement USE promesse de mariage / promise of marriage)

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Systematic display: Rights of aliens

FR / EN

CA concept associé (related concept)

CS concept spécifique (narrower

concept)

Identification number

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Systematic display FR / EN

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garde alternée

joint custody (2110)

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Organisation within a conceptual tree (mind map):

Is efficient for visualising, structuring, and classifying concepts.

Allows user to understand better the concepts and the relations between them.

Integration of the added value of terminology that provides more detailed semantic and terminological data.

Advantages to combine terminological

and documentary aspects

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Aid to translation (specialised multilingual terminology)

Court / E-justice / IATE

Aid to documentary research (thesaurus)

Court / E-justice / Eurovoc (Eur-Lex / N-Lex) / National databases

Aid to understanding texts

Court / E-justice / Eurovoc (Eur-Lex / N-Lex) / National databases

Possible use

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Multilingual terminological and detailed

entry

Time saving

Harmonisation and quality

Comparative Law

An aid to legal translation

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Multilingual terminological and detailed entry

To find the “terms” but also:

to understand the exact meaning of a concept and the difference between several concepts which are similar (arborescence and other data)

to avoid searching for the difference between several terms which express the same meaning (synonyms)

to use suitable references and to have direct access to multilingual documents (e.g.: EUR-Lex), etc.

An aid to legal translation

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An aid to research and to translation

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Could be used as a controlled vocabulary:

Indexation tool for documentalists

Search tool for users

By subject (hierarchical display /

systematic display)

By terms that could be combined to do

an expert search

An aid to documentary research

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Top terms under «Right of aliens»

entry into the territory

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Mind Map (test)

entry requirements

NT1 (NT: Narrower Term) under the top term

«admission/entry into the territory

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NT2 under «entry requirements»

visa

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NT3 NT6 sous «visa»

airport transit visa

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Why use this tool (terminology + thesaurus) as an aid to research?

To formulate precise queries thanks to

a combinatory language

To carry out an intuitive search

without necessarily knowing the right

vocabulary (arborescence)

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Why use this tool (terminology + thesaurus) as an aid to research? Controlled vocabularies are claimed to

improve the accuracy of free-text searching, such as to reduce irrelevant items in the retrieval list (noise by the inherent ambiguity of natural language) or to avoid silence.

To make a query in a text the language

of which the user does not master

To carry out a search in a technical text

using one’s own register

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minor

A thesaurus handles problems of

homographs

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A thesaurus handles problems of

synonymy

mariage fictif

OR

mariage de complaisance

OR

mariage blanc

OR

mariage simulé

OR

?

marriage of

convenience

OR

sham marriage

OR

?

FR

EN

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A multilingual thesaurus handles

problems of language barrier

Search for «concubinage» in spanish

texts

concubinage

union libre

union de fait

concubinato

unión libre

Concept n° 9

unión de hecho

What about the concept «concubinage» (living together as a cohabiting couple) in the Spanish system?

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unión libre unión no matrimonial

concubinato unión

paramatrimonial unión de hecho

concubinage union libre union non-

matrimoniale union de fait

union hors mariage

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FR EN

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FR EN

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EN FR

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What about «puissance

paternelle» in 2011 in France and

Portugal?

Research: «puissance

paternelle» …

puissance

paternelle

patria potestas

autorité

parentale

pátrio poder

patria potestas

FR: responsabilité parentale

Concept n° 2

A multilingual thesaurus handles problems

linked to linguistic and / or conceptual

developments

autoridade parental

responsabilidade parental

poder paternal

EU Cross reference

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FR PT

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FR PT

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Delimiting the concept

Establishing equivalence

To what extent can one accept a

partial equivalence especially with so

many systems?

Drafting terminological definitions

National law and EU law terminology

Difficulties…

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Choice of preferred terms

How to limit the concepts to what is «strictly necessary»?

Arborescence: reaching a consensus

No accurate term for existing concept

Target public

Update in such a dynamic field

Difficulties…

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Integration into a database which is not

only multilingual but also multi-systems

(to what legal system does a term

belong?)

Adaptation of the tool to a public which is

not expert in thesaurus

Challenges ahead

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Comparative multilingual legal terminology available in real-time in CuriaTerm

Research and legal comparison work is very motivating

Broader range of skills of colleagues

Contribution to the interinstitutional cooperation (Eurovoc and IATE)

Positive points

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Assessment

Multilingual collection of more than 600 concepts

Following a strict methodology and regular meetings

Specialists (legal, translation, terminology, documentary)

Investment in training

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Assessment

In-depth research in national law and comparative law is essential

Three pivot systems

Fundamental qualities (investment & consensual spirit & open to new technologies)

Suitable IT tool

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Thank you!

caroline.reichling@curia.europa.eu