"Legalese" : How to translate law report into clear and simple Swedish

Abstract: This paper deals with the translation of English law reports from The Times online. The analysis focuses on the translation of culture-specific phenomena, overly long sentences, double negations and passive constructions. When dealing with the culture-specific phenomena, the translation strategy put forth by Vinay & Darbelnet was applied, mainly borrowing and adaptation. Explanations were also frequently used, either positioned in the text or in a footnote. When dealing with the overly long sentences, double negations and passive constructions, the directions in Att översätta EU-rättsakter (www) were very valuable, as well as parallel texts. In recent years there has been a change toward using a legal language which is simpler, clearer and easier to understand. The translations in this paper are done with this ambition in mind. Keywords: translation,