On court interpretation and legal translation in family law matters

This article highlights some of the aspects, challenges and experiences of court interpreting and legal trans­lation in the field of family law in cases of marriage, divorce and adoption. In many cases, the role of the court interpreter is crucial in ensuring that speakers of a foreign language communicate with administrative and judicial authorities in various institutional procedures and, consequently, achieve the set objectives.

The introductory part of the paper deals with the concept of family law and the legislation in force in the Republic of Slovenia, as well as with international legal sources. It focuses on the work of the court inter­preter, the question of who is a court interpreter and what is their role, as well as on the techniques and type of interpretation. When translating family matters, there are a few special features that the court inter­preter has to take into account. They must have a good knowledge of the legislation of the source country as well as of the target country whose language they are translating. In addition to an excellent knowledge of both languages, they must also have knowledge of law and legal terminology. The court interpreter must also be familiar with the terminology of other disciplines, depending on the types of legal and other proceedings or the types of documents involved in the translation. Social and cultural issues must also be taken into consideration.

The paper deals in more detail with court interpretation in the case of marriage in Slovenia, where one of the future spouses is a foreigner and does not speak Slovene, and in the case of marriage of Slovenian citizens abroad. This is followed by court interpretation in divorce cases where one of the spouses is a for­eigner. In the case of adoptions, the paper focuses on adoptions of a child from abroad, from the start of the adoption process to the conclusion when the child is adopted. The paper describes the characteristics of each procedure and the role of the court interpreter, highlights some of the key challenges in interpreting and translating and suggests examples of translation of relevant terminology.