Legal translation - Requirements

This document specifies requirements for the competences and qualifications of legal translators, revisers and reviewers, best translation practices and the translation process directly affecting the quality and delivery of legal translation services. In particular, it specifies the core processes, resources, confidentiality, professional development requirements, training and other aspects of the legal translation service provided by individual translators.
Fulfilment of all the requirements set out in this document enables the individual legal translator to demonstrate conformity of their legal translation services to this document and their capability to maintain a level of quality in legal translation services that will meet the client's and other applicable specifications.
The use of output from machine translation, even with post-editing, is outside the scope of this document. Consulting of a machine translation resource by a legal translator, does not constitute use of raw machine translation plus post-editing.
This document does not apply to interpreting services.

Services de traduction juridique --

Le pr�sent document sp�cifie les exigences relatives aux comp�tences et aux qualifications des traducteurs, r�viseurs et relecteurs-experts juridiques et judiciaires, aux bonnes pratiques de traduction et au processus de traduction ayant une incidence directe sur la qualit� et la prestation de services de traduction juridique et judiciaire. Il sp�cifie notamment les principaux processus, les ressources, la confidentialit�, les exigences de d�veloppement professionnel, la formation et d'autres aspects du service de traduction juridique et judiciaire fourni par des traducteurs ind�pendants.
La satisfaction de l'ensemble des exigences �nonc�es dans le pr�sent document permet au traducteur juridique et judiciaire ind�pendant de d�montrer la conformit� de ses services de traduction juridique et judiciaire et sa capacit� � maintenir un niveau de qualit� dans les services de traduction juridique et judiciaire qui r�pondra aux sp�cifications du client et � d'autres sp�cifications applicables.
L'utilisation du r�sultat d'une traduction automatique, m�me avec sa post-�dition, ne rel�ve pas du domaine d'application du pr�sent document. La consultation d'une ressource documentaire issue d'une traduction automatique par un traducteur juridique et judiciaire ne constitue pas l'utilisation d'une traduction automatique brute plus sa post-�dition.
Le pr�sent document ne s'applique pas aux services d'interpr�tation.

Prevajanje pravnih besedil - Zahteve

General Information

Status
Published
Public Enquiry End Date
20-Oct-2019
Publication Date
11-Feb-2021
Current Stage
6060 - National Implementation/Publication (Adopted Project)
Start Date
28-Jan-2021
Due Date
04-Apr-2021
Completion Date
12-Feb-2021

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SLOVENSKI STANDARD
SIST ISO 20771:2021
01-marec-2021
Prevajanje pravnih besedil - Zahteve
Legal translation - Requirements
Services de traduction juridique --
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: ISO 20771:2020
ICS:
01.020 Terminologija (načela in Terminology (principles and
koordinacija) coordination)
03.080.99 Druge storitve Other services
03.160 Pravo. Uprava Law. Administration
SIST ISO 20771:2021 en,fr
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

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SIST ISO 20771:2021

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SIST ISO 20771:2021
INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 20771
First edition
2020-04
Legal translation — Requirements
Traduction juridique et judiciaire — Exigences
Reference number
ISO 20771:2020(E)
©
ISO 2020

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SIST ISO 20771:2021
ISO 20771:2020(E)

COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO 2020
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting
on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address
below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: +41 22 749 01 11
Fax: +41 22 749 09 47
Email: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

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SIST ISO 20771:2021
ISO 20771:2020(E)

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
3.1 Concepts related to legal translation and legal translation services . 1
3.2 Concepts related to translation workflow, technology and project management . 2
3.3 Concepts related to language and content . 3
3.4 Concepts related to people involved in translation services . 5
3.5 Concepts related to translation process, resources and professional requirements . 6
4 General . 7
5 Competences and qualifications . 8
5.1 Required competences of legal translators . 8
5.2 Required qualifications of legal translators . 9
5.3 Required competences of revisers of legal translation . 9
5.4 Required qualifications of revisers of legal translation .10
5.5 Required competences and qualifications of reviewers of legal translation .10
6 Translation process .10
6.1 Responsibility of the legal translator .10
6.2 Co-operation with other parties .11
6.3 Legal translation service related issues .11
6.3.1 Agreement and service specification .11
6.3.2 Project preparation . . .11
6.3.3 Translation .11
6.4 Check .12
6.5 Revision and review .12
6.6 Verification and correction .13
6.7 Signing off and record keeping .13
6.8 Authorized certification .13
6.9 Feedback and final steps .14
6.10 Complaints, individual responsibility and corrective action .14
7 Confidentiality, security and professional liability insurance .14
7.1 Confidentiality and security .14
7.2 Professional liability insurance .14
8 Professional development and involvement .14
8.1 Continuing professional development (CPD) .14
8.2 Documented proof of continuing professional development .15
Annex A (informative) Information on authorized legal translation used in judicial settings,
and for the use of public authorities and commercial purposes.16
Annex B (informative) Information on legal translation in government institutions and
non-governmental organizations .18
Annex C (informative) Information on how to document and quantify continuing
professional development (CPD) .20
Bibliography .22
Alphabetical index of the vocabulary in Clause 3 .23
© ISO 2020 – All rights reserved iii

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SIST ISO 20771:2021
ISO 20771:2020(E)

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/ directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www .iso .org/ patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and
expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see: www .iso
.org/ iso/ foreword .html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 37, Language and Terminology,
Subcommittee SC 5, Translation, interpreting and related technology.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www .iso .org/ members .html.
iv © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

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SIST ISO 20771:2021
ISO 20771:2020(E)

Introduction
Legal translation is a specialization which covers law-related or legal specialist field translation in
terms of content as well as context (e.g. legal settings). Given the highly specialist field, potential legal
consequences, and formal and liability issues, this specialization requires specific competences and
a very professional approach from the specialist translators involved. Due to the formalized, official
or sensitive nature of the subject matter in some countries, settings and under certain circumstances,
legal translators may be subject to specific professional, confidentiality and ethical requirements,
authorization, certification, and security clearance procedures. Furthermore, in some countries,
certain types of legal translation are performed by authorized legal translators who have to comply
with specific official requirements.
Serious legal issues and other consequences can be avoided if the legal translation service is provided
by competent legal translators who have professional understanding of the relevant legal systems,
knowledge of legal terminology and target language genre conventions and can produce authentic texts.
Legal documents constitute the basis for many personal and business undertakings. Legal translation
is a highly specialized type of translation service which is frequently used in official and legal settings
and this requires meeting the highest professional quality benchmarks. Taking the above into account
as well as the fact that there are no international standards in this area, this document was developed
in response to the evident market need.
This document is intended for implementation by individual translators who specialize in the provision
of legal translation services.
© ISO 2020 – All rights reserved v

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SIST ISO 20771:2021

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SIST ISO 20771:2021
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 20771:2020(E)
Legal translation — Requirements
1 Scope
This document specifies requirements for the competences and qualifications of legal translators,
revisers and reviewers, best translation practices and the translation process directly affecting
the quality and delivery of legal translation services. In particular, it specifies the core processes,
resources, confidentiality, professional development requirements, training and other aspects of the
legal translation service provided by individual translators.
Fulfilment of all the requirements set out in this document enables the individual legal translator to
demonstrate conformity of their legal translation services to this document and their capability to
maintain a level of quality in legal translation services that will meet the client’s and other applicable
specifications.
The use of output from machine translation, even with post-editing, is outside the scope of this
document. Consulting of a machine translation resource by a legal translator, does not constitute use of
raw machine translation plus post-editing.
This document does not apply to interpreting services.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at http:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1 Concepts related to legal translation and legal translation services
3.1.1
translate
render source language content (3.3.2) into target language content (3.3.3) in written form
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.1.1]
3.1.2
translation
set of processes to render source language content (3.3.2) into target language content (3.3.3) in
written form
Note 1 to entry: A translation may refer to formats other than text-based formats, e.g. an audio file, image, etc.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.1.2]
3.1.3
legal translation
law or legal specialized translation (3.1.4) by a legal translator (3.4.5)
© ISO 2020 – All rights reserved 1

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ISO 20771:2020(E)

3.1.4
specialized translation
translation (3.1.2) within a field of specialization by a specialist translator (3.4.4)
Note 1 to entry: Specialized translation is often also referred to as specialist translation.
3.2 Concepts related to translation workflow, technology and project management
3.2.1
computer-aided translation
CAT
translation (3.1.2) in which software applications are used to support the task of human translation (3.2.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.1, modified – ‘part of’ removed from beginning of definition and Note 1
to entry removed.]
3.2.2
machine translation
MT
automated translation (3.1.2) of content (3.3.1) from one natural language to another using a
computer system
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.2, modified – ‘text and speech’ replaced by ‘content’.]
3.2.3
human translation
translation (3.1.2) performed by a translator (3.4.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 20539:2019, 3.5.1.1]
3.2.4
check
examination of target language content (3.3.3) against the source language content (3.3.2) carried out by
the translator (3.4.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.5, modified – ‘against the source language content’ added.]
3.2.5
revision
bilingual examination of the entire target language content (3.3.3) against the source language content
(3.3.2), in order to ensure its factual and linguistic accuracy, and suitability for the agreed purpose,
carried out by the reviser (3.4.8)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.6, modified – ‘entire’ added before target language content and ‘for its
suitability for the agreed purpose’ replaced by ‘in order to ensure its factual and linguistic accuracy,
and suitability for the agreed purpose, carried out by the reviser’.]
3.2.6
review
monolingual examination of the entire target language content (3.3.3), in order to ensure its factual and
linguistic accuracy, and suitability for the agreed purpose, carried out by the reviewer (3.4.9)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.7, modified – ‘entire’ added before target language content and ‘for its
suitability for the agreed purpose’ replaced by ‘in order to ensure its factual and linguistic accuracy,
and suitability for the agreed purpose, carried out by the reviewer’.]
3.2.7
proofread
examine the final target language content (3.3.3) and apply corrections before publication
[SOURCE: ISO 20539:2019, 3.3.12]
2 © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

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SIST ISO 20771:2021
ISO 20771:2020(E)

3.2.8
project management
coordinating, managing and monitoring a project throughout its complete lifecycle
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.9]
3.2.9
style guide
set of editing and formatting instructions
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.10]
3.2.10
specification
client’s (3.4.2) or other stakeholder’s instructions or best practice guides to what is required
Note 1 to entry: Specifications for translators are often also referred to as translation briefs.
3.2.11
record
document (3.5.3) or report stating results achieved or providing evidence of activities performed
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.5.3]
3.2.12
post-editing
editing and correcting machine translation (3.2.2) output
[SOURCE: ISO 20539:2019, 3.5.1.13]
3.2.13
translation management system
TMS
software for managing a translation (3.1.2) project
3.3 Concepts related to language and content
3.3.1
content
anything representing meaningful information or knowledge
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.1]
3.3.2
source language content
language content (3.3.1) to be translated (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.2]
3.3.3
target language content
language content (3.3.1) translated (3.1.1) from source language content (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.3]
3.3.4
text
content (3.3.1) in written form
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.4]
© ISO 2020 – All rights reserved 3

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SIST ISO 20771:2021
ISO 20771:2020(E)

3.3.5
source language
language of the source language content (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.5]
3.3.6
target language
language into which source language content (3.3.2) is translated (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.6]
3.3.7
language register
language variety used for a particular purpose or in an event of language use, depending on the type of
situation, especially its degree of formality
[SOURCE: ISO/TR 20694:2018, 3.3]
3.3.8
locale
set of characteristics, information or conventions specific to the linguistic, cultural, technical and
geographical conventions of a target audience
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.11]
3.3.9
genre conventions
subset of specifications (3.2.10) for the target language content (3.3.3) related to the content type and
specialization (3.3.11)
Note 1 to entry: For example, in the case of legislation there are formal genre conventions that are used by
legislators.
Note 2 to entry: Genre conventions used to be sometimes referred to as “text-type conventions”.
3.3.10
domain
area of knowledge or activity having its own culture, social context and linguistic characteristics
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, modified – ‘subject field, sphere of knowledge or activity having its own
specialized culture for its suitability for the agreed purpose’ replaced by ‘area of knowledge or activity
having its own culture, social context and linguistic characteristics’.]
3.3.11
specialization
process of becoming an expert in a specialist field (3.3.12) or area of knowledge having its own unique
linguistic characteristics, including language register (3.3.7) and specialist terminology
3.3.12
specialist field
subject field
specific area of knowledge having its own unique linguistic characteristics, including language register
(3.3.7), style, specialist terminology and genre conventions (3.3.9)
4 © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

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SIST ISO 20771:2021
ISO 20771:2020(E)

3.4 Concepts related to people involved in translation services
3.4.1
translation service provider
TSP
language service provider that provides professional translation services
Note 1 to entry: TSPs can be translation companies, individual translators or in-house translation departments.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.2, modified – Note 2 to entry removed.]
3.4.2
client
customer
person or organization that commissions a translation service from a TSP (3.4.1)
by formal agreement
Note 1 to entry: The client can be the person or organization requesting or purchasing the translation service
and can be external or internal to the TSP’s organization.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.3]
3.4.3
translator
person who translates (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.4]
3.4.4
specialist translator
translator (3.4.3) who has the required competences and qualifications to translate (3.1.1) specialist
field (3.3.12) content (3.3.1)
3.4.5
legal translator
translator (3.4.3) who has the required competences and qualifications to translate (3.1.1) legal
specialist field (3.3.12) content (3.3.1)
3.4.6
authorized legal translator
legal translator (3.4.5) who is officially authorized by a court or a government body
Note 1 to entry: Court or government body authorization is generally given on the basis of relevant national
legislation, to translate specific documents used in judicial settings, by public authorities or as part of legal
proceedings and to take part in legal proceedings in the capacity of an authorized legal translator.
Note 2 to entry: Depending on the national legislation or convention, an authorized legal translator may in some
countries or regions also be referred to as a court-appointed translator, sworn translator, court authorized legal
translator or a certified legal translator.
3.4.7
lawyer linguist
person with legal background and linguistic competence who provides legislative linguistic advice
Note 1 to entry: The lawyer linguist can also provide advice within the context of bilingual or multilingual co-
drafted legislation, and comparison services to ensure equivalency and consistency between different language
versions of legislation.
Note 2 to entry: Depending on the custom or convention a lawyer linguist can in some countries or regions also
be referred to as jurilinguist.
Note 3 to entry: A lawyer linguist can, from time to time, also translate, revise or review legal texts, provide
advice on legal terminology, legal analysis, etc.
© ISO 2020 – All rights reserved 5

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SIST ISO 20771:2021
ISO 20771:2020(E)

3.4.8
reviser
person who revises (3.2.5) target language content (3.3.3) against source language content (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.5]
3.4.9
reviewer
person who reviews (3.2.6) target language content (3.3.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.6]
3.4.10
proofreader
person who proofreads (3.2.7) target language content (3.3.3) in order to make final corrections before
publication
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 3.3.13, modified – ‘target language content (3.3.3) in order to make final
corrections before publication’ added.]
3.4.11
project manager
PM
person who manages specified aspects of a translation project and is responsible for the process
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.8]
3.4.12
competence
ability to apply knowledge, experience and skills to achieve intended results
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.9]
3.4.13
recognized organization
organization that has been accredited by a national authority and found to be competent to assess
required tests and certify test results
3.5 Concepts related to translation process, resources and professional requirements
3.5.1
verification
confirmation by the project manager (3.4.11) that specifications (3.2.10) have been fulfilled
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.5.1]
3.5.2
translation certification
procedure used by an authorized legal translator (3.4.6) to confirm that the translated document (3.5.3)
meets the official requirements
3.5.3
document
information and the medium on which it is contained
Note 1 to entry: The medium can be paper, magnetic, electronic or optical computer disc, photograph or master
sample, or combination thereof.
Note 2 to entry: A set of documents, for example specifications and records, is frequently called “documentation”.
6 © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

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SIST ISO 20771:2021
ISO 20771:2020(E)

Note 3 to entry: Some requirements (e.g. the requirement to be readable) relate to all types of documents.
However, there can be different requirements for specifications (e.g. the requirement to be revision controlled)
and for records (e.g. the requirement to be retrievable).
[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2015, 3.8.5]
3.5.4
non-disclosure agreement
NDA
confidentiality agreement
contract through which the parties agree not to disclose information covered by the contract
Note 1 to entry: The NDA generally outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties
wish to share with one another for certain purposes but wish to restrict access to by third parties.
3.5.5
service level agreement
SLA
contract between a service provider and a client (3.4.2) that details the nature, quality, and scope of the
service to be provided with reference to relevant specifications (3.2.10)
Note 1 to entry: The SLA is generally expressed in the form of deliverables and metrics, and in measurable terms.
3.5.6
continuing professional development
CPD
activities undertaken by a person to maintain, improve or increase their knowledge and skills related
to their professional activities
Note 1 to entry: Continuing professional development can include such activities as attending workshops,
training courses, conferences, specialist courses, submitting publications and presenting at professional events.
Note 2 to entry: Depending on the custom or convention continuing professional development can in some
countries or regions also be referred to as continuous professional development.
3.5.7
continuing education point
CEP
quantified credit used in continuing professional development (3.5.6)
Note 1 to entry: CEPs can be achieved through active participation in courses or other educational and
professional activities offered by recognized professional or educational organizations.
3.5.8
validate
act of independently checking and confirming accuracy, relevance or legality of a document (3.5.3)
or process
4 General
Legal translation is a specialization which covers law-related or legal specialist field translation in
terms of content as well as context (e.g. legal settings). Given the highly specialist field, potential legal
consequences of mistranslation, and formal and liability issues, legal translation requires specific
competences and qualifications and a very professional approach from the specialist translators
involved in providing the legal translation service. Due to the formalized, official or sensitive nature of
the subject matter in certain countries, settings and under certain circumstances, legal translators can
be subject to specific professional, confidentiality and ethical requirements, authorization, certification,
and security clearance procedures. Furthermore, in some counties and settings certain types of legal
translation are performed by officially authorized legal translators who have to comply with specific
official requirements.
© ISO 2020 – All rights reserved 7

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SIST ISO 20771:2021
ISO 20771:2020(E)

For the purpose of this document, the distinction should be noted between legal translation in general
and authorized legal translation in particular:
a) legal translation refers to any law-related or legal specialist field translation. This typically
covers translation of agreements, contracts, acts of law, powers of attorney, notarial deeds,
...

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
SIST ISO 20771:2021
01-marec-2021
Prevajanje pravnih besedil - Zahteve
Legal translation - Requirements
Services de traduction juridique --
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: ISO 20771:2020
ICS:
03.080.99 Druge storitve Other services
03.160 Pravo. Uprava Law. Administration
SIST ISO 20771:2021 en,fr
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

---------------------- Page: 1 ----------------------
SIST ISO 20771:2021

---------------------- Page: 2 ----------------------
SIST ISO 20771:2021
INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 20771
First edition
2020-04
Legal translation — Requirements
Traduction juridique et judiciaire — Exigences
Reference number
ISO 20771:2020(E)
©
ISO 2020

---------------------- Page: 3 ----------------------
SIST ISO 20771:2021
ISO 20771:2020(E)

COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO 2020
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting
on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address
below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: +41 22 749 01 11
Fax: +41 22 749 09 47
Email: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

---------------------- Page: 4 ----------------------
SIST ISO 20771:2021
ISO 20771:2020(E)

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
3.1 Concepts related to legal translation and legal translation services . 1
3.2 Concepts related to translation workflow, technology and project management . 2
3.3 Concepts related to language and content . 3
3.4 Concepts related to people involved in translation services . 5
3.5 Concepts related to translation process, resources and professional requirements . 6
4 General . 7
5 Competences and qualifications . 8
5.1 Required competences of legal translators . 8
5.2 Required qualifications of legal translators . 9
5.3 Required competences of revisers of legal translation . 9
5.4 Required qualifications of revisers of legal translation .10
5.5 Required competences and qualifications of reviewers of legal translation .10
6 Translation process .10
6.1 Responsibility of the legal translator .10
6.2 Co-operation with other parties .11
6.3 Legal translation service related issues .11
6.3.1 Agreement and service specification .11
6.3.2 Project preparation . . .11
6.3.3 Translation .11
6.4 Check .12
6.5 Revision and review .12
6.6 Verification and correction .13
6.7 Signing off and record keeping .13
6.8 Authorized certification .13
6.9 Feedback and final steps .14
6.10 Complaints, individual responsibility and corrective action .14
7 Confidentiality, security and professional liability insurance .14
7.1 Confidentiality and security .14
7.2 Professional liability insurance .14
8 Professional development and involvement .14
8.1 Continuing professional development (CPD) .14
8.2 Documented proof of continuing professional development .15
Annex A (informative) Information on authorized legal translation used in judicial settings,
and for the use of public authorities and commercial purposes.16
Annex B (informative) Information on legal translation in government institutions and
non-governmental organizations .18
Annex C (informative) Information on how to document and quantify continuing
professional development (CPD) .20
Bibliography .22
Alphabetical index of the vocabulary in Clause 3 .23
© ISO 2020 – All rights reserved iii

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Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/ directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www .iso .org/ patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and
expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see: www .iso
.org/ iso/ foreword .html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 37, Language and Terminology,
Subcommittee SC 5, Translation, interpreting and related technology.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www .iso .org/ members .html.
iv © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

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Introduction
Legal translation is a specialization which covers law-related or legal specialist field translation in
terms of content as well as context (e.g. legal settings). Given the highly specialist field, potential legal
consequences, and formal and liability issues, this specialization requires specific competences and
a very professional approach from the specialist translators involved. Due to the formalized, official
or sensitive nature of the subject matter in some countries, settings and under certain circumstances,
legal translators may be subject to specific professional, confidentiality and ethical requirements,
authorization, certification, and security clearance procedures. Furthermore, in some countries,
certain types of legal translation are performed by authorized legal translators who have to comply
with specific official requirements.
Serious legal issues and other consequences can be avoided if the legal translation service is provided
by competent legal translators who have professional understanding of the relevant legal systems,
knowledge of legal terminology and target language genre conventions and can produce authentic texts.
Legal documents constitute the basis for many personal and business undertakings. Legal translation
is a highly specialized type of translation service which is frequently used in official and legal settings
and this requires meeting the highest professional quality benchmarks. Taking the above into account
as well as the fact that there are no international standards in this area, this document was developed
in response to the evident market need.
This document is intended for implementation by individual translators who specialize in the provision
of legal translation services.
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SIST ISO 20771:2021
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 20771:2020(E)
Legal translation — Requirements
1 Scope
This document specifies requirements for the competences and qualifications of legal translators,
revisers and reviewers, best translation practices and the translation process directly affecting
the quality and delivery of legal translation services. In particular, it specifies the core processes,
resources, confidentiality, professional development requirements, training and other aspects of the
legal translation service provided by individual translators.
Fulfilment of all the requirements set out in this document enables the individual legal translator to
demonstrate conformity of their legal translation services to this document and their capability to
maintain a level of quality in legal translation services that will meet the client’s and other applicable
specifications.
The use of output from machine translation, even with post-editing, is outside the scope of this
document. Consulting of a machine translation resource by a legal translator, does not constitute use of
raw machine translation plus post-editing.
This document does not apply to interpreting services.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at http:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1 Concepts related to legal translation and legal translation services
3.1.1
translate
render source language content (3.3.2) into target language content (3.3.3) in written form
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.1.1]
3.1.2
translation
set of processes to render source language content (3.3.2) into target language content (3.3.3) in
written form
Note 1 to entry: A translation may refer to formats other than text-based formats, e.g. an audio file, image, etc.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.1.2]
3.1.3
legal translation
law or legal specialized translation (3.1.4) by a legal translator (3.4.5)
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3.1.4
specialized translation
translation (3.1.2) within a field of specialization by a specialist translator (3.4.4)
Note 1 to entry: Specialized translation is often also referred to as specialist translation.
3.2 Concepts related to translation workflow, technology and project management
3.2.1
computer-aided translation
CAT
translation (3.1.2) in which software applications are used to support the task of human translation (3.2.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.1, modified – ‘part of’ removed from beginning of definition and Note 1
to entry removed.]
3.2.2
machine translation
MT
automated translation (3.1.2) of content (3.3.1) from one natural language to another using a
computer system
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.2, modified – ‘text and speech’ replaced by ‘content’.]
3.2.3
human translation
translation (3.1.2) performed by a translator (3.4.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 20539:2019, 3.5.1.1]
3.2.4
check
examination of target language content (3.3.3) against the source language content (3.3.2) carried out by
the translator (3.4.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.5, modified – ‘against the source language content’ added.]
3.2.5
revision
bilingual examination of the entire target language content (3.3.3) against the source language content
(3.3.2), in order to ensure its factual and linguistic accuracy, and suitability for the agreed purpose,
carried out by the reviser (3.4.8)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.6, modified – ‘entire’ added before target language content and ‘for its
suitability for the agreed purpose’ replaced by ‘in order to ensure its factual and linguistic accuracy,
and suitability for the agreed purpose, carried out by the reviser’.]
3.2.6
review
monolingual examination of the entire target language content (3.3.3), in order to ensure its factual and
linguistic accuracy, and suitability for the agreed purpose, carried out by the reviewer (3.4.9)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.7, modified – ‘entire’ added before target language content and ‘for its
suitability for the agreed purpose’ replaced by ‘in order to ensure its factual and linguistic accuracy,
and suitability for the agreed purpose, carried out by the reviewer’.]
3.2.7
proofread
examine the final target language content (3.3.3) and apply corrections before publication
[SOURCE: ISO 20539:2019, 3.3.12]
2 © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

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3.2.8
project management
coordinating, managing and monitoring a project throughout its complete lifecycle
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.9]
3.2.9
style guide
set of editing and formatting instructions
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.10]
3.2.10
specification
client’s (3.4.2) or other stakeholder’s instructions or best practice guides to what is required
Note 1 to entry: Specifications for translators are often also referred to as translation briefs.
3.2.11
record
document (3.5.3) or report stating results achieved or providing evidence of activities performed
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.5.3]
3.2.12
post-editing
editing and correcting machine translation (3.2.2) output
[SOURCE: ISO 20539:2019, 3.5.1.13]
3.2.13
translation management system
TMS
software for managing a translation (3.1.2) project
3.3 Concepts related to language and content
3.3.1
content
anything representing meaningful information or knowledge
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.1]
3.3.2
source language content
language content (3.3.1) to be translated (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.2]
3.3.3
target language content
language content (3.3.1) translated (3.1.1) from source language content (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.3]
3.3.4
text
content (3.3.1) in written form
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.4]
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3.3.5
source language
language of the source language content (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.5]
3.3.6
target language
language into which source language content (3.3.2) is translated (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.6]
3.3.7
language register
language variety used for a particular purpose or in an event of language use, depending on the type of
situation, especially its degree of formality
[SOURCE: ISO/TR 20694:2018, 3.3]
3.3.8
locale
set of characteristics, information or conventions specific to the linguistic, cultural, technical and
geographical conventions of a target audience
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.11]
3.3.9
genre conventions
subset of specifications (3.2.10) for the target language content (3.3.3) related to the content type and
specialization (3.3.11)
Note 1 to entry: For example, in the case of legislation there are formal genre conventions that are used by
legislators.
Note 2 to entry: Genre conventions used to be sometimes referred to as “text-type conventions”.
3.3.10
domain
area of knowledge or activity having its own culture, social context and linguistic characteristics
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, modified – ‘subject field, sphere of knowledge or activity having its own
specialized culture for its suitability for the agreed purpose’ replaced by ‘area of knowledge or activity
having its own culture, social context and linguistic characteristics’.]
3.3.11
specialization
process of becoming an expert in a specialist field (3.3.12) or area of knowledge having its own unique
linguistic characteristics, including language register (3.3.7) and specialist terminology
3.3.12
specialist field
subject field
specific area of knowledge having its own unique linguistic characteristics, including language register
(3.3.7), style, specialist terminology and genre conventions (3.3.9)
4 © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

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3.4 Concepts related to people involved in translation services
3.4.1
translation service provider
TSP
language service provider that provides professional translation services
Note 1 to entry: TSPs can be translation companies, individual translators or in-house translation departments.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.2, modified – Note 2 to entry removed.]
3.4.2
client
customer
person or organization that commissions a translation service from a TSP (3.4.1)
by formal agreement
Note 1 to entry: The client can be the person or organization requesting or purchasing the translation service
and can be external or internal to the TSP’s organization.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.3]
3.4.3
translator
person who translates (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.4]
3.4.4
specialist translator
translator (3.4.3) who has the required competences and qualifications to translate (3.1.1) specialist
field (3.3.12) content (3.3.1)
3.4.5
legal translator
translator (3.4.3) who has the required competences and qualifications to translate (3.1.1) legal
specialist field (3.3.12) content (3.3.1)
3.4.6
authorized legal translator
legal translator (3.4.5) who is officially authorized by a court or a government body
Note 1 to entry: Court or government body authorization is generally given on the basis of relevant national
legislation, to translate specific documents used in judicial settings, by public authorities or as part of legal
proceedings and to take part in legal proceedings in the capacity of an authorized legal translator.
Note 2 to entry: Depending on the national legislation or convention, an authorized legal translator may in some
countries or regions also be referred to as a court-appointed translator, sworn translator, court authorized legal
translator or a certified legal translator.
3.4.7
lawyer linguist
person with legal background and linguistic competence who provides legislative linguistic advice
Note 1 to entry: The lawyer linguist can also provide advice within the context of bilingual or multilingual co-
drafted legislation, and comparison services to ensure equivalency and consistency between different language
versions of legislation.
Note 2 to entry: Depending on the custom or convention a lawyer linguist can in some countries or regions also
be referred to as jurilinguist.
Note 3 to entry: A lawyer linguist can, from time to time, also translate, revise or review legal texts, provide
advice on legal terminology, legal analysis, etc.
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3.4.8
reviser
person who revises (3.2.5) target language content (3.3.3) against source language content (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.5]
3.4.9
reviewer
person who reviews (3.2.6) target language content (3.3.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.6]
3.4.10
proofreader
person who proofreads (3.2.7) target language content (3.3.3) in order to make final corrections before
publication
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 3.3.13, modified – ‘target language content (3.3.3) in order to make final
corrections before publication’ added.]
3.4.11
project manager
PM
person who manages specified aspects of a translation project and is responsible for the process
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.8]
3.4.12
competence
ability to apply knowledge, experience and skills to achieve intended results
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.9]
3.4.13
recognized organization
organization that has been accredited by a national authority and found to be competent to assess
required tests and certify test results
3.5 Concepts related to translation process, resources and professional requirements
3.5.1
verification
confirmation by the project manager (3.4.11) that specifications (3.2.10) have been fulfilled
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.5.1]
3.5.2
translation certification
procedure used by an authorized legal translator (3.4.6) to confirm that the translated document (3.5.3)
meets the official requirements
3.5.3
document
information and the medium on which it is contained
Note 1 to entry: The medium can be paper, magnetic, electronic or optical computer disc, photograph or master
sample, or combination thereof.
Note 2 to entry: A set of documents, for example specifications and records, is frequently called “documentation”.
6 © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

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Note 3 to entry: Some requirements (e.g. the requirement to be readable) relate to all types of documents.
However, there can be different requirements for specifications (e.g. the requirement to be revision controlled)
and for records (e.g. the requirement to be retrievable).
[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2015, 3.8.5]
3.5.4
non-disclosure agreement
NDA
confidentiality agreement
contract through which the parties agree not to disclose information covered by the contract
Note 1 to entry: The NDA generally outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties
wish to share with one another for certain purposes but wish to restrict access to by third parties.
3.5.5
service level agreement
SLA
contract between a service provider and a client (3.4.2) that details the nature, quality, and scope of the
service to be provided with reference to relevant specifications (3.2.10)
Note 1 to entry: The SLA is generally expressed in the form of deliverables and metrics, and in measurable terms.
3.5.6
continuing professional development
CPD
activities undertaken by a person to maintain, improve or increase their knowledge and skills related
to their professional activities
Note 1 to entry: Continuing professional development can include such activities as attending workshops,
training courses, conferences, specialist courses, submitting publications and presenting at professional events.
Note 2 to entry: Depending on the custom or convention continuing professional development can in some
countries or regions also be referred to as continuous professional development.
3.5.7
continuing education point
CEP
quantified credit used in continuing professional development (3.5.6)
Note 1 to entry: CEPs can be achieved through active participation in courses or other educational and
professional activities offered by recognized professional or educational organizations.
3.5.8
validate
act of independently checking and confirming accuracy, relevance or legality of a document (3.5.3)
or process
4 General
Legal translation is a specialization which covers law-related or legal specialist field translation in
terms of content as well as context (e.g. legal settings). Given the highly specialist field, potential legal
consequences of mistranslation, and formal and liability issues, legal translation requires specific
competences and qualifications and a very professional approach from the specialist translators
involved in providing the legal translation service. Due to the formalized, official or sensitive nature of
the subject matter in certain countries, settings and under certain circumstances, legal translators can
be subject to specific professional, confidentiality and ethical requirements, authorization, certification,
and security clearance procedures. Furthermore, in some counties and settings certain types of legal
translation are performed by officially authorized legal translators who have to comply with specific
official requirements.
© ISO 2020 – All rights reserved 7

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For the purpose of this document, the distinction should be noted between legal translation in general
and authorized legal translation in particular:
a) legal translation refers to any law-related or legal specialist field translation. This typically
covers translation of agreements, contracts, acts of law, powers of attorney, notarial deeds, court
decisions, financial statements, registration documents or any other legal documen
...

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 20771
First edition
2020-04
Legal translation — Requirements
Traduction juridique et judiciaire — Exigences
Reference number
ISO 20771:2020(E)
©
ISO 2020

---------------------- Page: 1 ----------------------
ISO 20771:2020(E)

COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO 2020
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting
on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address
below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: +41 22 749 01 11
Fax: +41 22 749 09 47
Email: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

---------------------- Page: 2 ----------------------
ISO 20771:2020(E)

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
3.1 Concepts related to legal translation and legal translation services . 1
3.2 Concepts related to translation workflow, technology and project management . 2
3.3 Concepts related to language and content . 3
3.4 Concepts related to people involved in translation services . 5
3.5 Concepts related to translation process, resources and professional requirements . 6
4 General . 7
5 Competences and qualifications . 8
5.1 Required competences of legal translators . 8
5.2 Required qualifications of legal translators . 9
5.3 Required competences of revisers of legal translation . 9
5.4 Required qualifications of revisers of legal translation .10
5.5 Required competences and qualifications of reviewers of legal translation .10
6 Translation process .10
6.1 Responsibility of the legal translator .10
6.2 Co-operation with other parties .11
6.3 Legal translation service related issues .11
6.3.1 Agreement and service specification .11
6.3.2 Project preparation . . .11
6.3.3 Translation .11
6.4 Check .12
6.5 Revision and review .12
6.6 Verification and correction .13
6.7 Signing off and record keeping .13
6.8 Authorized certification .13
6.9 Feedback and final steps .14
6.10 Complaints, individual responsibility and corrective action .14
7 Confidentiality, security and professional liability insurance .14
7.1 Confidentiality and security .14
7.2 Professional liability insurance .14
8 Professional development and involvement .14
8.1 Continuing professional development (CPD) .14
8.2 Documented proof of continuing professional development .15
Annex A (informative) Information on authorized legal translation used in judicial settings,
and for the use of public authorities and commercial purposes.16
Annex B (informative) Information on legal translation in government institutions and
non-governmental organizations .18
Annex C (informative) Information on how to document and quantify continuing
professional development (CPD) .20
Bibliography .22
Alphabetical index of the vocabulary in Clause 3 .23
© ISO 2020 – All rights reserved iii

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ISO 20771:2020(E)

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/ directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www .iso .org/ patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and
expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see: www .iso
.org/ iso/ foreword .html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 37, Language and Terminology,
Subcommittee SC 5, Translation, interpreting and related technology.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www .iso .org/ members .html.
iv © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

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ISO 20771:2020(E)

Introduction
Legal translation is a specialization which covers law-related or legal specialist field translation in
terms of content as well as context (e.g. legal settings). Given the highly specialist field, potential legal
consequences, and formal and liability issues, this specialization requires specific competences and
a very professional approach from the specialist translators involved. Due to the formalized, official
or sensitive nature of the subject matter in some countries, settings and under certain circumstances,
legal translators may be subject to specific professional, confidentiality and ethical requirements,
authorization, certification, and security clearance procedures. Furthermore, in some countries,
certain types of legal translation are performed by authorized legal translators who have to comply
with specific official requirements.
Serious legal issues and other consequences can be avoided if the legal translation service is provided
by competent legal translators who have professional understanding of the relevant legal systems,
knowledge of legal terminology and target language genre conventions and can produce authentic texts.
Legal documents constitute the basis for many personal and business undertakings. Legal translation
is a highly specialized type of translation service which is frequently used in official and legal settings
and this requires meeting the highest professional quality benchmarks. Taking the above into account
as well as the fact that there are no international standards in this area, this document was developed
in response to the evident market need.
This document is intended for implementation by individual translators who specialize in the provision
of legal translation services.
© ISO 2020 – All rights reserved v

---------------------- Page: 5 ----------------------
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 20771:2020(E)
Legal translation — Requirements
1 Scope
This document specifies requirements for the competences and qualifications of legal translators,
revisers and reviewers, best translation practices and the translation process directly affecting
the quality and delivery of legal translation services. In particular, it specifies the core processes,
resources, confidentiality, professional development requirements, training and other aspects of the
legal translation service provided by individual translators.
Fulfilment of all the requirements set out in this document enables the individual legal translator to
demonstrate conformity of their legal translation services to this document and their capability to
maintain a level of quality in legal translation services that will meet the client’s and other applicable
specifications.
The use of output from machine translation, even with post-editing, is outside the scope of this
document. Consulting of a machine translation resource by a legal translator, does not constitute use of
raw machine translation plus post-editing.
This document does not apply to interpreting services.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at http:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1 Concepts related to legal translation and legal translation services
3.1.1
translate
render source language content (3.3.2) into target language content (3.3.3) in written form
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.1.1]
3.1.2
translation
set of processes to render source language content (3.3.2) into target language content (3.3.3) in
written form
Note 1 to entry: A translation may refer to formats other than text-based formats, e.g. an audio file, image, etc.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.1.2]
3.1.3
legal translation
law or legal specialized translation (3.1.4) by a legal translator (3.4.5)
© ISO 2020 – All rights reserved 1

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ISO 20771:2020(E)

3.1.4
specialized translation
translation (3.1.2) within a field of specialization by a specialist translator (3.4.4)
Note 1 to entry: Specialized translation is often also referred to as specialist translation.
3.2 Concepts related to translation workflow, technology and project management
3.2.1
computer-aided translation
CAT
translation (3.1.2) in which software applications are used to support the task of human translation (3.2.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.1, modified – ‘part of’ removed from beginning of definition and Note 1
to entry removed.]
3.2.2
machine translation
MT
automated translation (3.1.2) of content (3.3.1) from one natural language to another using a
computer system
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.2, modified – ‘text and speech’ replaced by ‘content’.]
3.2.3
human translation
translation (3.1.2) performed by a translator (3.4.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 20539:2019, 3.5.1.1]
3.2.4
check
examination of target language content (3.3.3) against the source language content (3.3.2) carried out by
the translator (3.4.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.5, modified – ‘against the source language content’ added.]
3.2.5
revision
bilingual examination of the entire target language content (3.3.3) against the source language content
(3.3.2), in order to ensure its factual and linguistic accuracy, and suitability for the agreed purpose,
carried out by the reviser (3.4.8)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.6, modified – ‘entire’ added before target language content and ‘for its
suitability for the agreed purpose’ replaced by ‘in order to ensure its factual and linguistic accuracy,
and suitability for the agreed purpose, carried out by the reviser’.]
3.2.6
review
monolingual examination of the entire target language content (3.3.3), in order to ensure its factual and
linguistic accuracy, and suitability for the agreed purpose, carried out by the reviewer (3.4.9)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.7, modified – ‘entire’ added before target language content and ‘for its
suitability for the agreed purpose’ replaced by ‘in order to ensure its factual and linguistic accuracy,
and suitability for the agreed purpose, carried out by the reviewer’.]
3.2.7
proofread
examine the final target language content (3.3.3) and apply corrections before publication
[SOURCE: ISO 20539:2019, 3.3.12]
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ISO 20771:2020(E)

3.2.8
project management
coordinating, managing and monitoring a project throughout its complete lifecycle
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.9]
3.2.9
style guide
set of editing and formatting instructions
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.10]
3.2.10
specification
client’s (3.4.2) or other stakeholder’s instructions or best practice guides to what is required
Note 1 to entry: Specifications for translators are often also referred to as translation briefs.
3.2.11
record
document (3.5.3) or report stating results achieved or providing evidence of activities performed
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.5.3]
3.2.12
post-editing
editing and correcting machine translation (3.2.2) output
[SOURCE: ISO 20539:2019, 3.5.1.13]
3.2.13
translation management system
TMS
software for managing a translation (3.1.2) project
3.3 Concepts related to language and content
3.3.1
content
anything representing meaningful information or knowledge
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.1]
3.3.2
source language content
language content (3.3.1) to be translated (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.2]
3.3.3
target language content
language content (3.3.1) translated (3.1.1) from source language content (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.3]
3.3.4
text
content (3.3.1) in written form
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.4]
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ISO 20771:2020(E)

3.3.5
source language
language of the source language content (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.5]
3.3.6
target language
language into which source language content (3.3.2) is translated (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.6]
3.3.7
language register
language variety used for a particular purpose or in an event of language use, depending on the type of
situation, especially its degree of formality
[SOURCE: ISO/TR 20694:2018, 3.3]
3.3.8
locale
set of characteristics, information or conventions specific to the linguistic, cultural, technical and
geographical conventions of a target audience
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.11]
3.3.9
genre conventions
subset of specifications (3.2.10) for the target language content (3.3.3) related to the content type and
specialization (3.3.11)
Note 1 to entry: For example, in the case of legislation there are formal genre conventions that are used by
legislators.
Note 2 to entry: Genre conventions used to be sometimes referred to as “text-type conventions”.
3.3.10
domain
area of knowledge or activity having its own culture, social context and linguistic characteristics
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, modified – ‘subject field, sphere of knowledge or activity having its own
specialized culture for its suitability for the agreed purpose’ replaced by ‘area of knowledge or activity
having its own culture, social context and linguistic characteristics’.]
3.3.11
specialization
process of becoming an expert in a specialist field (3.3.12) or area of knowledge having its own unique
linguistic characteristics, including language register (3.3.7) and specialist terminology
3.3.12
specialist field
subject field
specific area of knowledge having its own unique linguistic characteristics, including language register
(3.3.7), style, specialist terminology and genre conventions (3.3.9)
4 © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved

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ISO 20771:2020(E)

3.4 Concepts related to people involved in translation services
3.4.1
translation service provider
TSP
language service provider that provides professional translation services
Note 1 to entry: TSPs can be translation companies, individual translators or in-house translation departments.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.2, modified – Note 2 to entry removed.]
3.4.2
client
customer
person or organization that commissions a translation service from a TSP (3.4.1)
by formal agreement
Note 1 to entry: The client can be the person or organization requesting or purchasing the translation service
and can be external or internal to the TSP’s organization.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.3]
3.4.3
translator
person who translates (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.4]
3.4.4
specialist translator
translator (3.4.3) who has the required competences and qualifications to translate (3.1.1) specialist
field (3.3.12) content (3.3.1)
3.4.5
legal translator
translator (3.4.3) who has the required competences and qualifications to translate (3.1.1) legal
specialist field (3.3.12) content (3.3.1)
3.4.6
authorized legal translator
legal translator (3.4.5) who is officially authorized by a court or a government body
Note 1 to entry: Court or government body authorization is generally given on the basis of relevant national
legislation, to translate specific documents used in judicial settings, by public authorities or as part of legal
proceedings and to take part in legal proceedings in the capacity of an authorized legal translator.
Note 2 to entry: Depending on the national legislation or convention, an authorized legal translator may in some
countries or regions also be referred to as a court-appointed translator, sworn translator, court authorized legal
translator or a certified legal translator.
3.4.7
lawyer linguist
person with legal background and linguistic competence who provides legislative linguistic advice
Note 1 to entry: The lawyer linguist can also provide advice within the context of bilingual or multilingual co-
drafted legislation, and comparison services to ensure equivalency and consistency between different language
versions of legislation.
Note 2 to entry: Depending on the custom or convention a lawyer linguist can in some countries or regions also
be referred to as jurilinguist.
Note 3 to entry: A lawyer linguist can, from time to time, also translate, revise or review legal texts, provide
advice on legal terminology, legal analysis, etc.
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ISO 20771:2020(E)

3.4.8
reviser
person who revises (3.2.5) target language content (3.3.3) against source language content (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.5]
3.4.9
reviewer
person who reviews (3.2.6) target language content (3.3.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.6]
3.4.10
proofreader
person who proofreads (3.2.7) target language content (3.3.3) in order to make final corrections before
publication
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 3.3.13, modified – ‘target language content (3.3.3) in order to make final
corrections before publication’ added.]
3.4.11
project manager
PM
person who manages specified aspects of a translation project and is responsible for the process
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.8]
3.4.12
competence
ability to apply knowledge, experience and skills to achieve intended results
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.9]
3.4.13
recognized organization
organization that has been accredited by a national authority and found to be competent to assess
required tests and certify test results
3.5 Concepts related to translation process, resources and professional requirements
3.5.1
verification
confirmation by the project manager (3.4.11) that specifications (3.2.10) have been fulfilled
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.5.1]
3.5.2
translation certification
procedure used by an authorized legal translator (3.4.6) to confirm that the translated document (3.5.3)
meets the official requirements
3.5.3
document
information and the medium on which it is contained
Note 1 to entry: The medium can be paper, magnetic, electronic or optical computer disc, photograph or master
sample, or combination thereof.
Note 2 to entry: A set of documents, for example specifications and records, is frequently called “documentation”.
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ISO 20771:2020(E)

Note 3 to entry: Some requirements (e.g. the requirement to be readable) relate to all types of documents.
However, there can be different requirements for specifications (e.g. the requirement to be revision controlled)
and for records (e.g. the requirement to be retrievable).
[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2015, 3.8.5]
3.5.4
non-disclosure agreement
NDA
confidentiality agreement
contract through which the parties agree not to disclose information covered by the contract
Note 1 to entry: The NDA generally outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties
wish to share with one another for certain purposes but wish to restrict access to by third parties.
3.5.5
service level agreement
SLA
contract between a service provider and a client (3.4.2) that details the nature, quality, and scope of the
service to be provided with reference to relevant specifications (3.2.10)
Note 1 to entry: The SLA is generally expressed in the form of deliverables and metrics, and in measurable terms.
3.5.6
continuing professional development
CPD
activities undertaken by a person to maintain, improve or increase their knowledge and skills related
to their professional activities
Note 1 to entry: Continuing professional development can include such activities as attending workshops,
training courses, conferences, specialist courses, submitting publications and presenting at professional events.
Note 2 to entry: Depending on the custom or convention continuing professional development can in some
countries or regions also be referred to as continuous professional development.
3.5.7
continuing education point
CEP
quantified credit used in continuing professional development (3.5.6)
Note 1 to entry: CEPs can be achieved through active participation in courses or other educational and
professional activities offered by recognized professional or educational organizations.
3.5.8
validate
act of independently checking and confirming accuracy, relevance or legality of a document (3.5.3)
or process
4 General
Legal translation is a specialization which covers law-related or legal specialist field translation in
terms of content as well as context (e.g. legal settings). Given the highly specialist field, potential legal
consequences of mistranslation, and formal and liability issues, legal translation requires specific
competences and qualifications and a very professional approach from the specialist translators
involved in providing the legal translation service. Due to the formalized, official or sensitive nature of
the subject matter in certain countries, settings and under certain circumstances, legal translators can
be subject to specific professional, confidentiality and ethical requirements, authorization, certification,
and security clearance procedures. Furthermore, in some counties and settings certain types of legal
translation are performed by officially authorized legal translators who have to comply with specific
official requirements.
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ISO 20771:2020(E)

For the purpose of this document, the distinction should be noted between legal translation in general
and authorized legal translation in particular:
a) legal translation refers to any law-related or legal specialist field translation. This typically
covers translation of agreements, contracts, acts of law, powers of attorney, notarial deeds, court
decisions, financial statements, registration documents or any other legal documents which do
not require translation certification by an authorized legal translator but should be translated
by a legal translator who specialises in translating this type of content and context, and provides
translation services within this specialist field;
b) authorized legal translation refers to specialized translation performed by officially authorized
legal translators (who in some countries or regions are also referred to as court appointed
translators, sworn translators, court authorized legal translators or certified legal translators)
and the certified translation output they provide has the status of officially recognized documents.
This typically covers translation of personal documents, certificates, documents used in court
and administrative proceedings and any other personal of corporate documents that require
certification and signing off by an officially authorized legal
...

NORME ISO
INTERNATIONALE 20771
Première édition
2020-04
Traduction juridique et judiciaire —
Exigences
Legal translation — Requirements
Numéro de référence
ISO 20771:2020(F)
©
ISO 2020

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ISO 20771:2020(F)

DOCUMENT PROTÉGÉ PAR COPYRIGHT
© ISO 2020
Tous droits réservés. Sauf prescription différente ou nécessité dans le contexte de sa mise en œuvre, aucune partie de cette
publication ne peut être reproduite ni utilisée sous quelque forme que ce soit et par aucun procédé, électronique ou mécanique,
y compris la photocopie, ou la diffusion sur l’internet ou sur un intranet, sans autorisation écrite préalable. Une autorisation peut
être demandée à l’ISO à l’adresse ci-après ou au comité membre de l’ISO dans le pays du demandeur.
ISO copyright office
Case postale 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Genève
Tél.: +41 22 749 01 11
Fax: +41 22 749 09 47
E-mail: copyright@iso.org
Web: www.iso.org
Publié en Suisse
ii © ISO 2020 – Tous droits réservés

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ISO 20771:2020(F)

Sommaire Page
Avant-propos .iv
Introduction .v
1 Domaine d’application . 1
2 Références normatives . 1
3 Termes et définitions . 1
3.1 Concepts relatifs à la traduction juridique et judiciaire et aux services de
traduction juridique et judiciaire . 1
3.2 Concepts relatifs au flux, à la technologie et à la gestion des projets de traduction . 2
3.3 Concepts relatifs à la langue et au contenu . 3
3.4 Concepts relatifs aux personnes impliquées dans les services de traduction . 5
3.5 Concepts relatifs au processus, aux ressources et aux exigences professionnelles
de traduction . 7
4 Généralités . 8
5 Compétences et qualifications . 9
5.1 Compétences requises des traducteurs juridiques et judiciaires . 9
5.2 Qualifications requises des traducteurs juridiques et judiciaires .10
5.3 Compétences requises des réviseurs de traduction juridique et judiciaire .10
5.4 Qualifications requises des réviseurs de traduction juridique et judiciaire .11
5.5 Compétences et qualifications requises des relecteurs-experts de traduction
juridique et judiciaire .11
6 Processus de traduction .11
6.1 Responsabilité du traducteur juridique et judiciaire .11
6.2 Coopération avec d’autres parties .12
6.3 Enjeux liés aux services de traduction juridique et judiciaire .12
6.3.1 Accord et spécification de service .12
6.3.2 Préparation du projet .13
6.3.3 Traduction .13
6.4 Vérification .14
6.5 Révision et relecture-expertise .14
6.6 Contrôle et correction .14
6.7 Signature d’approbation et enregistrement .15
6.8 Certification agréée .15
6.9 Retours d’information et étapes finales .15
6.10 Réclamations, responsabilité individuelle et action corrective .15
7 Confidentialité, sécurité et assurance responsabilité civile professionnelle .16
7.1 Confidentialité et sécurité .16
7.2 Assurance responsabilité civile professionnelle .16
8 Développement professionnel et implication.16
8.1 Formation professionnelle continue (FPC) .16
8.2 Preuve documentée de formation professionnelle continue .16
Annexe A (informative) Informations relatives à la traduction juridique et judiciaire agréée
utilisée dans un cadre judiciaire, à l’usage des autorités publiques et à des fins
commerciales .18
Annexe B (informative) Informations relatives à la traduction juridique dans les
institutions gouvernementales et les organisations non gouvernementales .20
Annexe C (informative) Informations sur la manière de documenter et de quantifier la
formation professionnelle continue (FPC) .22
Bibliographie .24
Index alphabétique des termes de l’Article 3 .25
© ISO 2020 – Tous droits réservés iii

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ISO 20771:2020(F)

Avant-propos
L’ISO (Organisation internationale de normalisation) est une fédération mondiale d’organismes
nationaux de normalisation (comités membres de l’ISO). L’élaboration des Normes internationales est
en général confiée aux comités techniques de l’ISO. Chaque comité membre intéressé par une étude
a le droit de faire partie du comité technique créé à cet effet. Les organisations internationales,
gouvernementales et non gouvernementales, en liaison avec l’ISO participent également aux travaux.
L’ISO collabore étroitement avec la Commission électrotechnique internationale (IEC) en ce qui
concerne la normalisation électrotechnique.
Les procédures utilisées pour élaborer le présent document et celles destinées à sa mise à jour sont
décrites dans les Directives ISO/IEC, Partie 1. Il convient, en particulier de prendre note des différents
critères d’approbation requis pour les différents types de documents ISO. Le présent document a été
rédigé conformément aux règles de rédaction données dans les Directives ISO/IEC, Partie 2 (voir www
.iso .org/ directives).
L’attention est attirée sur le fait que certains des éléments du présent document peuvent faire l’objet de
droits de propriété intellectuelle ou de droits analogues. L’ISO ne saurait être tenue pour responsable
de ne pas avoir identifié de tels droits de propriété et averti de leur existence. Les détails concernant
les références aux droits de propriété intellectuelle ou autres droits analogues identifiés lors de
l’élaboration du document sont indiqués dans l’Introduction et/ou dans la liste des déclarations de
brevets reçues par l’ISO (voir www .iso .org/ brevets).
Les appellations commerciales éventuellement mentionnées dans le présent document sont données
pour information, par souci de commodité, à l’intention des utilisateurs et ne sauraient constituer un
engagement.
Pour une explication de la nature volontaire des normes, la signification des termes et expressions
spécifiques de l’ISO liés à l’évaluation de la conformité, ou pour toute information au sujet de l’adhésion
de l’ISO aux principes de l’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) concernant les obstacles
techniques au commerce (OTC), voir le lien suivant: www .iso .org/ iso/ fr/ avant -propos.
Le présent document a été élaboré par le comité technique ISO/TC 37, Langage et terminologie, sous-
comité SC 5, Traduction, interprétation et technologies apparentées.
Il convient que l’utilisateur adresse tout retour d’information ou toute question concernant le présent
document à l’organisme national de normalisation de son pays. Une liste exhaustive desdits organismes
se trouve à l’adresse www .iso .org/ fr/ members .html.
iv © ISO 2020 – Tous droits réservés

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ISO 20771:2020(F)

Introduction
La traduction juridique et judiciaire est une spécialisation qui couvre aussi bien le contenu que le contexte
(par exemple, le cadre juridique) de traductions relatives au droit ou à un domaine de spécialisation
juridique. Compte tenu du domaine hautement spécialisé, des conséquences juridiques potentielles et
des enjeux de forme et de responsabilité, cette spécialisation requiert des compétences particulières
et une approche très professionnelle de la part des traducteurs concernés. Du fait de la nature
formelle, officielle ou sensible du sujet traité dans certains pays, cadres juridiques et circonstances,
les traducteurs juridiques et judiciaires peuvent être soumis à des exigences professionnelles, de
confidentialité et de déontologie spécifiques ainsi qu’à des procédures d’autorisation, de certification
et d’habilitation de sécurité. En outre, dans certains pays, certains types de traduction juridique et
judiciaire sont effectués par des traducteurs habilités qui sont tenus de se conformer à des exigences
officielles spécifiques.
De graves problèmes juridiques et judiciaires et d’autres conséquences peuvent être évités si le
service de traduction juridique et judiciaire est fourni par des traducteurs compétents qui ont une
compréhension professionnelle des systèmes juridiques et judiciaires concernés, une connaissance de
la terminologie juridique et judiciaire et des conventions de genre de la langue cible, et qui peuvent
produire des textes authentiques. Les documents juridiques et judiciaires constituent la base de
nombreuses démarches personnelles et professionnelles. La traduction juridique et judiciaire est un
type de service de traduction hautement spécialisé qui est fréquemment utilisé dans le cadre officiel et
juridique. Cela exige de répondre aux critères de qualité professionnelle les plus élevés. Compte tenu de
ce qui précède ainsi que du fait qu’il n’existe pas de normes internationales dans ce domaine, le présent
document a été élaboré en réponse à un besoin manifeste du marché.
Le présent document est destiné à être mis en œuvre par des traducteurs indépendants spécialisés
dans la prestation de services de traduction juridique et judiciaire.
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NORME INTERNATIONALE ISO 20771:2020(F)
Traduction juridique et judiciaire — Exigences
1 Domaine d’application
Le présent document spécifie les exigences relatives aux compétences et aux qualifications des
traducteurs, réviseurs et relecteurs-experts juridiques et judiciaires, aux bonnes pratiques de
traduction et au processus de traduction ayant une incidence directe sur la qualité et la prestation
de services de traduction juridique et judiciaire. Il spécifie notamment les principaux processus, les
ressources, la confidentialité, les exigences de développement professionnel, la formation et d’autres
aspects du service de traduction juridique et judiciaire fourni par des traducteurs indépendants.
La satisfaction de l’ensemble des exigences énoncées dans le présent document permet au traducteur
juridique et judiciaire indépendant de démontrer la conformité de ses services de traduction juridique
et judiciaire et sa capacité à maintenir un niveau de qualité dans les services de traduction juridique et
judiciaire qui répondra aux spécifications du client et à d’autres spécifications applicables.
L’utilisation du résultat d’une traduction automatique, même avec sa post-édition, ne relève pas du
domaine d’application du présent document. La consultation d’une ressource documentaire issue d’une
traduction automatique par un traducteur juridique et judiciaire ne constitue pas l’utilisation d’une
traduction automatique brute plus sa post-édition.
Le présent document ne s’applique pas aux services d’interprétation.
2 Références normatives
Le présent document ne contient aucune référence normative.
3 Termes et définitions
Pour les besoins du présent document, les termes et définitions suivants s’appliquent.
L’ISO et l’IEC tiennent à jour des bases de données terminologiques destinées à être utilisées en
normalisation, consultables aux adresses suivantes:
— ISO Online browsing platform: disponible à l'adresse http:// www .iso .org/ obp;
— IEC Electropedia: disponible à l’adresse http:// www .electropedia .org/ .
3.1 Concepts relatifs à la traduction juridique et judiciaire et aux services de traduction
juridique et judiciaire
3.1.1
traduire
transposer un contenu dans la langue source (3.3.2) en un contenu dans la langue cible (3.3.3) sous
forme écrite
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.1.1]
3.1.2
traduction
ensemble de processus permettant de transposer un contenu dans la langue source (3.3.2) en un contenu
dans la langue cible (3.3.3) sous forme écrite
Note 1 à l'article: Une traduction peut se rapporter à des formats autres que les formats textuels (par exemple, un
fichier audio, une image, etc.).
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ISO 20771:2020(F)

[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.1.2]
3.1.3
traduction juridique et judiciaire
traduction (3.1.4) spécialisée relative au droit ou à un domaine juridique par un traducteur juridique et
judiciaire (3.4.5)
3.1.4
traduction spécialisée
traduction (3.1.2) dans un domaine de spécialisation par un traducteur spécialisé (3.4.4)
Note 1 à l'article: La traduction spécialisée est souvent également appelée traduction de spécialisation.
3.2 Concepts relatifs au flux, à la technologie et à la gestion des projets de traduction
3.2.1
traduction assistée par ordinateur
TAO
traduction (3.1.2) au cours de laquelle des applications logicielles sont utilisées pour assister la tâche de
la traduction humaine (3.2.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.1, modifiée – «partie d’un flux de» a été supprimé au début de la définition
et la Note 1 à l’article a été supprimée.]
3.2.2
traduction automatique
TA
traduction (3.1.2) automatisée de contenu (3.3.1) d’un langage naturel à un autre à l’aide d’un système
informatique
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.2, modifiée – «d’un texte ou d’un discours» a été remplacé par «de
contenu».]
3.2.3
traduction humaine
traduction (3.1.2) effectuée par un traducteur (3.4.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 20539:2019, 3.5.1.1]
3.2.4
vérification
examen du contenu dans la langue cible (3.3.3) comparé au contenu dans la langue source (3.3.2) réalisé
par le traducteur (3.4.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.5, modifiée– «comparé au contenu dans la langue source» a été ajouté.]
3.2.5
révision
examen bilingue de l’intégralité du contenu dans la langue cible (3.3.3) comparé au contenu dans la langue
source (3.3.2) dans le but de garantir son exactitude factuelle et linguistique ainsi que son adéquation à
l’objet convenu, réalisé par le réviseur (3.4.8)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.6, modifiée – «de l’intégralité» a été ajouté avant «du contenu dans la
langue cible» et «afin d’évaluer son adéquation avec l’objectif convenu» a été remplacé par «dans le but
de garantir son exactitude factuelle et linguistique ainsi que son adéquation à l’objet convenu, réalisé
par le réviseur».]
2 © ISO 2020 – Tous droits réservés

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ISO 20771:2020(F)

3.2.6
relecture-expertise
examen unilingue de l’intégralité du contenu dans la langue cible (3.3.3) dans le but de garantir son
exactitude factuelle et linguistique ainsi que son adéquation à l’objet convenu, réalisé par le relecteur-
expert (3.4.9)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.7, modifiée – «de l’intégralité» a été ajouté avant «du contenu dans la
langue cible» et «afin d’évaluer son adéquation avec l’objectif convenu» a été remplacé par «dans le but
de garantir son exactitude factuelle et linguistique ainsi que son adéquation à l’objet convenu, réalisé
par le relecteur-expert».]
3.2.7
corriger des épreuves
examiner le contenu dans la langue cible (3.3.3) définitif et effectuer des corrections avant publication
[SOURCE: ISO 20539:2019, 3.3.12]
3.2.8
gestion de projet
coordination, gestion et surveillance d’un projet pendant toute sa durée
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.9]
3.2.9
guide stylistique
ensemble d’instructions relatives à l’édition et à la mise en forme
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.10]
3.2.10
spécification
instructions ou guides de bonnes pratiques du client (3.4.2) ou autre partie prenante relatifs aux
exigences à satisfaire
Note 1 à l'article: Les spécifications destinées aux traducteurs sont souvent également appelées «instructions de
traduction».
3.2.11
enregistrement
document (3.5.3) ou rapport faisant état de résultats obtenus ou apportant la preuve de la réalisation
d’une activité
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.5.3]
3.2.12
post-édition
édition et correction du résultat d’une traduction automatique (3.2.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 20539:2019, 3.5.1.13]
3.2.13
système de gestion de traduction
SGT
logiciel de gestion d’un projet de traduction (3.1.2)
3.3 Concepts relatifs à la langue et au contenu
3.3.1
contenu
tout ce qui représente des informations ou des connaissances utiles
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.1]
© ISO 2020 – Tous droits réservés 3

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ISO 20771:2020(F)

3.3.2
contenu dans la langue source
contenu (3.3.1) linguistique devant être traduit (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.2]
3.3.3
contenu dans la langue cible
contenu (3.3.1) linguistique traduit (3.1.1) à partir du contenu dans la langue source (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.3]
3.3.4
texte
contenu (3.3.1) sous forme écrite
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.4]
3.3.5
langue source
langue du contenu dans la langue source (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.5]
3.3.6
langue cible
langue dans laquelle le contenu dans la langue source (3.3.2) est traduit (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.6]
3.3.7
registre linguistique
variété de langue utilisée pour un objet spécifique ou dans un cas d’utilisation de langage particulier en
fonction du type de situation, et notamment de son degré de formalité
[SOURCE: ISO/TR 20694:2018, 3.3]
3.3.8
particularités locales
ensemble des caractéristiques, informations ou conventions spécifiques aux conventions linguistiques,
culturelles, techniques et géographiques d’un public cible
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.11]
3.3.9
conventions de genre
sous-ensemble de spécifications (3.2.10) pour le contenu dans la langue cible (3.3.3) relatif au type de
contenu et à la spécialisation (3.3.11)
Note 1 à l'article: Par exemple, dans le cas de la législation, il existe des conventions de genre formelles qui sont
utilisées par le législateur.
Note 2 à l'article: Les conventions de genre utilisées sont parfois appelées «conventions intertextuelles».
3.3.10
domaine
champ de connaissance ou activité ayant ses propres caractéristiques culturelles, sociales et
linguistiques
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, modifiée – «sujet, champ de connaissance ou activité ayant ses propres
caractéristiques culturelles, sociales et linguistique spécialisées» a été remplacé par «champ de
connaissance ou activité ayant ses propres caractéristiques culturelles, sociales et linguistiques».]
4 © ISO 2020 – Tous droits réservés

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ISO 20771:2020(F)

3.3.11
spécialisation
processus visant à devenir un expert dans un domaine de spécialisation (3.3.12) ou un champ de
connaissance ayant ses propres caractéristiques linguistiques exclusives, incluant le registre linguistique
(3.3.7) et la terminologie spécialisée
3.3.12
domaine de spécialisation
domaine
champ de connaissance spécifique ayant ses propres caractéristiques linguistiques exclusives, incluant
le registre linguistique (3.3.7), le style, la terminologie spécialisée et les conventions de genre (3.3.9)
3.4 Concepts relatifs aux personnes impliquées dans les services de traduction
3.4.1
prestataire de services de traduction
PST
prestataire de services linguistiques fournissant des services professionnels de traduction
Note 1 à l'article: Les PST peuvent être des sociétés de traduction, traducteurs indépendants ou services internes
de traduction.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.2, modifiée – La Note 2 à l’article a été supprimée.]
3.4.2
client
donneur d’ouvrage
personne ou organisation qui commande un service de traduction d’un PST
(3.4.1) dans le cadre d’un accord officiel
Note 1 à l'article: Le client peut être la personne ou l’organisation demandant ou achetant le service de traduction
et peut être externe ou interne à l’organisation du PST.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.3]
3.4.3
traducteur
personne qui traduit (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.4]
3.4.4
traducteur spécialisé
traducteur (3.4.3) disposant des compétences et qualifications requises pour traduire (3.1.1) du contenu
(3.3.1) d’un domaine de spécialisation (3.3.12)
3.4.5
traducteur juridique et judiciaire
traducteur (3.4.3) disposant des compétences et qualifications requises pour traduire (3.1.1) du contenu
(3.3.1) d’un domaine de spécialisation (3.3.12) juridique
© ISO 2020 – Tous droits réservés 5

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ISO 20771:2020(F)

3.4.6
traducteur habilité
traducteur agréé
traducteur assermenté
traducteur juridique et judiciaire (3.4.5) officiellement agréé par une cour, un tribunal ou un organisme
gouvernemental
Note 1 à l'article: L’assermentation d’un tribunal ou d’un organisme gouvernemental est généralement accordée
sur la base de la législation nationale applicable pour traduire des documents spécifiques utilisés dans un
contexte judiciaire par les autorités publiques ou dans le cadre de procédures judiciaires et pour participer à des
procédures judiciaires en qualité de traducteur habilité.
Note 2 à l'article: Selon la législation nationale ou la convention, un traducteur habilité peut, dans certains pays
ou régions, être également désigné comme traducteur judiciaire, traducteur juridique agréé, traducteur juridique
agréé par un tribunal ou traducteur juridique certifié. En France, on parle d’expert traducteur près une cour
d’appel ou agréé par la cour de cassation ou d’un traducteur assermenté par un tribunal.
3.4.7
juriste-linguiste
personne dotée de connaissances juridiques et judiciaires et de compétences langagières qui fournit
des conseils linguistiques en matière de législation
Note 1 à l'article: Le juriste-linguiste peut également fournir des conseils dans le cadre d’une législation bilingue
ou multilingue co-rédigée et des services de comparaison pour assurer l’équivalence et la cohérence entre les
différentes versions linguistiques de la législation.
Note 2 à l'article: Selon l’usage ou la convention, un juriste-linguiste peut, dans certains pays ou régions, être
également appelé jurilinguiste.
Note 3 à l'article: Occasionnellement, un juriste-linguiste peut également traduire, réviser ou faire une relecture-
expertise de textes juridiques et judiciaires, donner des conseils sur la terminologie juridique et judiciaire,
l’analyse juridique et judiciaire, etc.
3.4.8
réviseur
personne qui révise (3.2.5) le contenu dans la langue cible (3.3.3) par rapport au contenu dans la langue
source (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.5]
3.4.9
relecteur-expert
personne qui assure une relecture-expertise (3.2.6) du contenu dans la langue cible (3.3.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.6]
3.4.10
correcteur d’épreuves
personne qui assure une correction d’épreuves (3.2.7) du contenu dans la langue cible (3.3.3) afin d’y
apporter des corrections finales avant sa publication
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 3.3.13, modifiée – «du contenu dans la langue cible (3.3.3) afin d’y apporter
des corrections finales avant sa publication» a été ajouté.]
3.4.11
chef de projet
CP
personne qui gère des aspects spécifiés d’un projet de traduction et qui est responsable de ce processus
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.8]
6 © ISO 2020 – Tous droits réservés

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ISO 20771:2020(F)

3.4.12
compétence
aptitude à mettre en œuvre des connaissances, une expérience et un savoir-faire en vue d’obtenir les
résultats escomptés
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.9]
3.4.13
organisation reconnue
organisation qui a été accréditée par une autorité nationale et jugée compétente pour évaluer les essais
requis et certifier les résultats des essais
3.5 Concepts relatifs au processus, aux ressources et aux exigences professionnelles de
traduction
3.5.1
contrôle
confirmation par le chef de projet (3.4.11) que les spécifications (3.2.10) ont été respectées
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.5.1]
3.5.2
certification de traduction
procédure utilisée par un traducteur habilité (3.4.6) pour confirmer que le document (3.5.3) traduit
satisfait aux exigences officielles
3.5.3
document
support d’information et l’information qu’il contient
Note 1 à l'article: Le support peut être papier, magnétique, électronique ou optique, photographie ou échantillon
étalon, ou une combinaison de ceux-ci.
Note 2 à l'article: Un ensemble de documents, par exemple spécifications et enregistrements, est couramment
appelé «documentation».
Note 3 à l'article: Certaines exigences (par exemple, l’exigence de lisibilité) se rapportent à tous les types de
documents. Il peut toutefois y avoir des exigences différentes pour les spécifications (par exemple l’exigence de
maîtrise des révisions) et les enregistrements (par exemple, l’exigence de récupération des données).
[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2015, 3.8.5]
3.5.4
accord de non-divulgation
NDA
accord de confidentialité
contrat par lequel les parties conviennent de ne pas divulguer les informations visées par le contrat
Note 1 à l'article: Le NDA décrit généralement les supports, connaissances ou informations confidentiels que les
parties souhaitent partager entre elles à certaines fins, mais dont l’accès est restreint par des tiers.
3.5.5
accord de niveau de service
ANS
contrat entre un prestataire de services et un client (3.4.2) qui détaille la nature, la qualité et l’étendue
du service à fournir en tenant compte des
...

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
oSIST ISO/DIS 20771:2019
01-oktober-2019
Prevajanje pravnih besedil - Zahteve
Legal translation - Requirements
Services de traduction juridique --
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: ISO/DIS 20771:2019
ICS:
03.080.99 Druge storitve Other services
03.160 Pravo. Uprava Law. Administration
oSIST ISO/DIS 20771:2019 en,fr,de
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

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oSIST ISO/DIS 20771:2019

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oSIST ISO/DIS 20771:2019
DRAFT INTERNATIONAL STANDARD
ISO/DIS 20771
ISO/TC 37/SC 5 Secretariat: ASI
Voting begins on: Voting terminates on:
2019-04-02 2019-06-25
Legal translation — Requirements
ICS: 01.020; 03.080.20; 03.080.30
THIS DOCUMENT IS A DRAFT CIRCULATED
FOR COMMENT AND APPROVAL. IT IS
THEREFORE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND MAY
NOT BE REFERRED TO AS AN INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD UNTIL PUBLISHED AS SUCH.
IN ADDITION TO THEIR EVALUATION AS
BEING ACCEPTABLE FOR INDUSTRIAL,
This document is circulated as received from the committee secretariat.
TECHNOLOGICAL, COMMERCIAL AND
USER PURPOSES, DRAFT INTERNATIONAL
STANDARDS MAY ON OCCASION HAVE TO
BE CONSIDERED IN THE LIGHT OF THEIR
POTENTIAL TO BECOME STANDARDS TO
WHICH REFERENCE MAY BE MADE IN
Reference number
NATIONAL REGULATIONS.
ISO/DIS 20771:2019(E)
RECIPIENTS OF THIS DRAFT ARE INVITED
TO SUBMIT, WITH THEIR COMMENTS,
NOTIFICATION OF ANY RELEVANT PATENT
RIGHTS OF WHICH THEY ARE AWARE AND TO
©
PROVIDE SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION. ISO 2019

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oSIST ISO/DIS 20771:2019
ISO/DIS 20771:2019(E)

COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO 2019
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting
on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address
below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: +41 22 749 01 11
Fax: +41 22 749 09 47
Email: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

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oSIST ISO/DIS 20771:2019
ISO/DIS 20771:2019(E)

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
3.1 Concepts related to legal translation and legal translation services . 1
3.2 Concepts related to translation workflow, technology and project management . 2
3.3 Concepts related to language and content . 3
3.4 Concepts related to the people involved in translation services . 4
3.5 Concepts related to the translation process, resources and professional requirements. 6
4 Competences and qualifications . 7
4.1 Required competences of a legal translator . 7
4.2 Qualifications of a legal translator . 8
4.3 Required competences of revisers of legal translation . 8
4.4 Qualifications of a reviser of legal translation . 9
4.5 Professional competences and qualifications of reviewers of legal translation . . 9
5 Translation process . 9
5.1 Responsibility of the legal translator . 9
5.2 Responsibility of other parties .10
5.3 Leg al translation service related issues .10
5.3.1 Agreement and service specification .10
5.3.2 Project preparation . . .10
5.3.3 Translation .10
5.4 Check .11
5.5 Revision and review .11
5.6 V erification and correction .11
5.7 Signing off and record keeping .12
5.8 Authorized certification .12
5.9 Feedback and final steps .12
5.10 Complaints, individual responsibility and corrective action .12
6 Confidentiality, security and professional liability insurance .12
6.1 Confidentiality and security .12
6.2 Professional liability insurance .13
7 Professional development and involvement .13
7.1 Continuing professional development .13
7.2 Documented proof of continuing professional development .13
Annex A (informative) Certified legal translation used in judicial settings and for the use of
public authorities .14
Annex B (informative) Legal translation in government institutions and non-governmental
organisations .16
Annex C (informative) Information on how to document and quantify continuing
professional development (CPD) .18
Bibliography .20
Alphabetical Index of Vocabulary in Clause 3 .21
© ISO 2019 – All rights reserved iii

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oSIST ISO/DIS 20771:2019
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Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www .iso .org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and
expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see the following
URL: www .iso .org/iso/foreword .html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 37, Language and Terminology,
Subcommittee SC 5, Translation, interpreting and related technology, Working group 1, Translation.
iv © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

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oSIST ISO/DIS 20771:2019
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Introduction
This document provides requirements for all aspects of the translation process directly affecting
the quality and delivery of legal translation services. It includes provisions for qualifications and
competences of legal translators, revisers and reviewers, good translation practices and the translation
process as well as professional development requirements for legal translators.
Legal translation is a specialization which covers law related or legal specialist field translation in
terms of content as well as context (e.g. legal settings). Given the potential legal consequences, formal
and liability issues, this specialization requires specific competences and a professional approach from
the individuals involved. Due to the formalized and sensitive nature of the subject matter in certain
countries, settings and under certain circumstances legal translators may be subject to specific
professional, confidentiality and ethical requirements, authorization, certification, and/or security
clearance procedures.
This document is intended for implementation by individual translators who specialize in the provision
of legal translation services. Conformity requires all the required provisions to be met. How the
requirements are met may depend on the subject matter, circumstances, regulations and the adopted
process.
© ISO 2019 – All rights reserved v

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oSIST ISO/DIS 20771:2019
DRAFT INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/DIS 20771:2019(E)
Legal translation — Requirements
1 Scope
This document specifies requirements for the competences and qualifications of legal translators,
revisers and reviewers. In particular, it specifies the core processes, resources, professional
development, training and other aspects of the legal translation service provided by individual
translators.
Fulfilment of the requirements set out in this document enables the individual legal translator to
demonstrate their capability to maintain a desired level of quality in legal translation services that
will meet the Client’s and other applicable specifications and therefore be considered a fit for purpose
specialist translation product. .
The use of output from machine translation, even with post-editing, is outside the scope of this
document.
This document does not apply to interpreting services.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— IEC Electropedia: available at http: //www .electropedia .org/
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at http: //www .iso .org/obp
NOTE The terms designating these concepts are listed alphabetically with linked reference numbers given
in the index.
3.1 Concepts related to legal translation and legal translation services
3.1.1
translate
render source language content (3.3.2) into target language content (3.3.3) in written form
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.1.1]
3.1.2
translation
set of processes to render source language content (3.3.2) into target language content (3.3.3) in
written form
Note 1 to entry: A translation may refer to formats other than text-based formats, e.g. an audio file, image etc.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.1.2]
3.1.3
legal translation
law related or legal specialist field (3.3.12) translation (3.1.2) by a legal translator (3.4.5)
© ISO 2019 – All rights reserved 1

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3.1.4
specialized translation
translation (3.1.2) within a field of specialization by a specialist translator (3.4.4)
Note 1 to entry: specialized translation is often also referred to as specialist translation.
3.2 Concepts related to translation workflow, technology and project management
3.2.1
computer-aided translation
CAT
approach to translation in which software applications are used to support the task of human
translation (3.1.2)
3.2.2
machine translation
MT
automated translation (3.1.2) of content (3.3.1) from one natural language to another using a
computer system
3.2.3
check
examination of target language content (3.3.3) against the source language content (3.3.2) carried out by
the translator (3.4.3)
3.2.4
revision
bilingual examination of the entire target language content (3.3.3) against the source language content
(3.3.2), in order to ensure its factual and linguistic accuracy, and suitability for the agreed purpose,
carried out by the reviser (3.4.8)
3.2.5
review
monolingual examination of the entire target language content (3.3.3), in order to ensure its factual and
linguistic accuracy, and suitability for the agreed purpose, carried out by the reviewer (3.4.9)
3.2.6
proofreading
examination of the revised target language content (3.3.3), and applying final corrections, before
printing
3.2.7
project management
coordinating, managing and monitoring a project throughout its complete lifecycle
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.9]
3.2.8
style guide
set of editing and formatting instructions
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.2.10]
3.2.9
specification
client’s or other stakeholder’s instructions or best-practice guides that specify what is requested and
required to make the translation fit-for-purpose
Note 1 to entry: Specifications for translators are often also referred to as translation briefs.
2 © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

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Note 2 to entry: Apart from project-related details such as deadlines, technical instructions, genre conventions,
locales, language registers etc. specifications for translators should state at least the main function (purpose) of
the translated document and its target audience.
3.3 Concepts related to language and content
3.3.1
content
anything representing meaningful information or knowledge
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.1]
3.3.2
source language content
language content (3.3.1) to be translated (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.2]
3.3.3
target language content
language content (3.3.1) translated (3.1.1) from source language content (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.3]
3.3.4
text
content (3.3.1) in written form
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.4]
3.3.5
source language
language of the source language content (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.5]
3.3.6
target language
language into which source language content (3.3.2) is translated (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.6]
3.3.7
language register
language variety used for a particular purpose or in an event of language use, depending on the type of
situation, especially its degree of formality
[SOURCE: ISO/TR 20694]
3.3.8
locale
set of characteristics, information or conventions specific to the linguistic, cultural, technical and
geographical conventions of a target audience
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.3.11]
© ISO 2019 – All rights reserved 3

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3.3.9
genre conventions
subset of specifications (3.2.9) for the target language content (3.3.3) related to the content type and
specialization (3.3.11)
Note 1 to entry: For example, in the case of legislation there are formal genre conventions which are always used
by legislators.
Note 2 to entry: Genre conventions used to be sometimes referred to as “text-type conventions”.
3.3.10
domain
area of knowledge or activity having its own culture, social context and linguistic characteristics
3.3.11
specialization
process of becoming an expert in a specialist field (3.3.12)or area of knowledge having its own unique
linguistic characteristics, including language register (3.3.7) and specialist terminology
3.3.12
specialist field
subject field
specific area of knowledge having its own unique linguistic characteristics, including language register
(3.3.7), style, specialist terminology and genre conventions (3.3.9)
3.4 Concepts related to the people involved in translation services
3.4.1
translation service provider
TSP
language service provider that provides professional translation services
Note 1 to entry: TSPs can be translation companies, individual translators or in-house translation departments.
Note 2 to entry: Language service provider (LSP) is a more general term involving other language-related and
value-added services, but for the purposes of this document, LSPs are considered to be TSPs when they are
providing translation services.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.2]
3.4.2
client
customer
< translation services > person or organization that commissions a translation service from a TSP
(3.4.1) by formal agreement
Note 1 to entry: The client can be the person or organization requesting or purchasing the translation service
and can be external or internal to the TSP’s (3.4.1) organization.
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.3]
3.4.3
translator
person who translates (3.1.1)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.4]
3.4.4
specialist translator
person who has the required competences and qualifications to translate (3.1.1) specific specialist field
(3.3.12) content (3.3.1)
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3.4.5
legal translator
person who has the required competences and qualifications to translate (3.1.1) legal specialist field
(3.3.12) content (3.3.1)
3.4.6
authorized legal translator
legal translator (3.4.5) who is authorized by a court or a government body
Note 1 to entry: Court or government body authorization is generally given on the basis of relevant national
legislation, to translate specific documents used in judicial settings, by public authorities or as part of legal
proceedings and to take part in legal proceedings in such capacity
Note 2 to entry: Depending on the national legislation or convention, an authorized legal translator may in some
countries or regions also be referred to as a court-appointed translator, sworn translator, court authorized legal
translator or a certified legal translator.
3.4.7
lawyer linguist
person with legal background who provides legislative linguistic advice
Note 1 to entry: The lawyer linguist can also provide advice within the context of bilingual or multilingual co-
drafted legislation, and comparison services to ensure equivalency and consistency between different language
versions of legislation.
Note 2 to entry: Depending on the custom or convention a lawyer linguist may in some countries or regions also
be referred to as jurilinguist.
Note 3 to entry: A lawyer linguist may, from time to time, also translate, revise or review legal texts, provide
advice on legal terminology, legal analysis etc.
3.4.8
reviser
person who revises (3.2.4) target language content (3.3.3) against source language content (3.3.2)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.5]
3.4.9
reviewer
person who reviews (3.2.5) target language content (3.3.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.6]
3.4.10
proofreader
person who proofreads (3.2.6) target language content (3.3.3) in order to make final corrections prior to
publication
3.4.11
project manager
PM
person who manages specified aspects of a translation project and is responsible for the process
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.8]
3.4.12
competence
ability to apply knowledge, experience and skills to achieve intended results
[SOURCE: ISO 17100:2015, 2.4.9]
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3.4.13
recognized organization
competent organization that has been accredited by a national authority and found to be capable of
assessing required tests and certifying test results
3.5 Concepts related to the translation process, resources and professional
requirements
3.5.1
verification
confirmation by the project manager (3.4.11) that specifications (3.2.9) have been fulfilled
3.5.2
translation certification
procedure used by an authorized legal translator to confirm that the translated document meets the
official requirements
3.5.3
document
information and the medium on which it is contained
Note 1 to entry: The medium can be paper, magnetic, electronic or optical computer disc, photograph or master
sample, or combination thereof.
Note 2 to entry: A set of documents, for example specifications and records, is frequently called “documentation”.
Note 3 to entry: Some requirements (e.g. the requirement to be readable) relate to all types of documents.
However, there can be different requirements for specifications (e.g. the requirement to be revision controlled)
and for records (e.g. the requirement to be retrievable).
[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2015, 3.8.5]
3.5.4
non-disclosure agreement
NDA
confidentiality agreement
contract through which the parties agree not to disclose information covered by the contract.
Note 1 to entry: The NDA generally outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties
wish to share with one another for certain purposes but wish to restrict access to by third parties.
3.5.5
service level agreement
SLA
contract between a service provider and a customer that details the nature, quality, and scope of the
service to be provided with reference to relevant specifications (3.2.9)
Note 1 to entry: The SLA is generally expressed in the form of deliverables and metrics, and in measurable terms.
3.5.6
continuing professional development
CPD
level of professionalism and competence maintained through ongoing involvement in continuing
education activities
Note 1 to entry: Continuing education activities can include such activities as attending workshops, training
courses, conferences, specialist courses, submitting publications and presenting at professional events.
Note 2 to entry: Depending on the custom or convention continuing professional development may in some
countries or regions also be referred to as continuous professional development.
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3.5.7
continuing education points (CEPs)
recognized method of quantifying credit for a continuing education objective
Note 1 to entry: CEPs can be achieved through active participation in courses or other educational and
professional activities offered by recognized professional or educational organizations.
3.5.8
validate
act of independently checking and confirming accuracy, relevance or legality of a document or process
4 Competences and qualifications
4.1 Required competences of a legal translator
Legal translators shall have the following competences:
a) Translation competence: the ability to translate specialist legal content, including the ability to
address the problems of specialist language content comprehension and production, and the
ability to render the target language content in accordance with the project specifications, using
the correct language register, specialist terminology and taking into account other aspects of legal
translation specialization,
b) Linguistic and textual competence in the source language and the target language: the ability to
fully understand the source language, fluency in the target language, and knowledge of specialist
genre conventions, language registers, legal collocations and terminology in both the source and
target language. The linguistic and textual competence includes the ability to apply this knowledge
and specialist legal terminology when producing legal translation,
c) Specialist legal field competence: the ability to understand specialist legal content produced
in the source language and to reproduce it in the target language, using the appropriate up-to-
date specialist legal language register, genre conventions, terminology and style. If required and
authorized to do so, a legal translator should have the knowledge of proper procedure for certifying
a translation,
d) Competence in research, information acquisition and processing: the ability to efficiently
acquire additional specialist legal knowledge or source documents and terminology necessary
to understand and process specialist source language content, to produce the legal specialist
target language content, and to critically assess the credibility and reliability of all the resources.
Research competence also requires experience in the use of research tools and search engines, the
ability to develop suitable specialist terminology bases and strategies for the efficient use of the
information sources available, evaluation of their relevance and credibility in a given context, and
source. If required, to be capable of providing information about the requirements for legalization
or authorization of translated legal documents,
e) Legal culture competence: ability to make use of information on behavioural standards, value
systems, understanding of legal procedures and systems, language registers and locale that
characterize both source and target language legal cultures and are relevant to the specializations
and settings that the legal translator is dealing with as well as ability to understand the distinction
and cultural and factual implications
...

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