Month: March 2016

False Friends: puro y simple ; “pure and simple”

rebeccajowers False Friends
 

 Puro y simple isn’t so pure and simple!

In legal contexts puro/a (y simple) cannot generally be translated literally as “pure (and simple),” since the expression often means “unconditional.” Obligaciones puras (“unconditional obligations”) are those that are not subject to any condition or term (no sujetas a ningún tipo de condición, plazo o término) and, thus, payment or performance of those obligations may be demanded at any time. Donación pura y simple denotes an “unconditional gift,” in contrast to a donación modal (or)  donación onerosa upon which the donor has imposed a condition or encumbrance.

With regard to negotiable instruments (títulos valores), checks and bills of exchange (cheques y letras de cambio) must contain an “unconditional order to pay a fixed amount of money.” In Spanish this is expressed as un mandato puro y simple de pagar una suma determinada. And in the context of the law of succession (Derecho de sucesiones) heredero puro y simple denotes an heir who accepts his inheritance unconditionally (known as aceptación pura y simple), without exercising the option to limit his liability for the debts of the inherited estate to the value of the inheritance (called beneficio de inventario).

Terminology Sources: puntoycoma

rebeccajowers Terminology Sources

In this first entry on Spanish-English legal terminology resources I would like to highlight puntoycoma: Boletín de los traductores españoles de las instituciones de la Unión Europea. Published quarterly since 1991, in each issue legal and financial translators will inevitably find useful terminology on a wide variety of topics that are in no way limited to EU affairs. Of special interest are the extensive bilingual vocabularies published in the following issues:

Glosario de bolsa (16)

Glosario de la política comunitaria de competencia (80)

Glosario de términos y expresiones sobre la crisis económica (130, 131)

Glosario de terminología financiera (15)

Glosario de inovación y transferencia de tecnología (77)

Glosario de la propiedad industrial (61, 67)

http://ec.europa.eu/translation/spanish/magazine/es_magazine_about_es.htm

 

 

Mistranslations (?) of abuso de derecho

rebeccajowers Mistranslations?

Is this really a mistranslation_

abuso de derecho; abuse of process

Abuso de derecho has sometimes been inappropriately interpreted as referring to procedural abuse and thus translated as “abuse of process,” “malicious prosecution,” or “frivolous (or) vexatious litigation.” But as used in Spain (and in other Spanish-speaking jurisdictions) abuso de derecho is actually a much broader concept, being defined in Article 7.2 of the Código Civil as any acto u omisión que sobrepase manifiestamente los límites normales del ejercicio de un derecho, con daño para tercero. This Civil Code premise is often referred to in English as the “doctrine of abuse of rights,” defined as “the concept that the malicious or antisocial exercise of otherwise legitimate rights can give rise to civil liability.”* Thus, abuso de derecho is not “abuse of process,” and may be more accurately rendered in English as “abuse of rights,” or if a more precise, descriptive translation is warranted, “the abusive exercise of legitimate rights in detriment to the interests of a third party.”

In contrast, the concepts of “abuse of process,” “malicious prosecution,” or “frivolous (or) vexatious litigation” are perhaps more closely reflected in Spanish procedural terminology in expressions such as mala fe procesal, temeridad procesal or, depending on the context, even fraude procesal. In summary, abuso de derecho is a broad term denoting the abuse of a legitimate right in detriment to another person, while expressions such as “abuse of process,” “malicious prosecution,” and “frivolous (or) vexatious litigation” are limited to procedural contexts and describe abuses of the judicial process for ulterior or collateral purposes.

 

*“The doctrine of abuse of rights, found in various guises in Civil Law jurisdictions, refers to the concept that the malicious or antisocial exercise of otherwise legitimate rights can give rise to civil liability.” (From the Abstract to the article “The Doctrine of Abuse of Rights: Perspective from a Mixed Jurisdiction,” by Elspeth Reid, Electronic Journal of Comparative Law, Vol. 8.3, October, 2004)

http://www.ejcl.org/83/abs83-2.html

 

 

 

Capsule Vocabularies: Trademarks

rebeccajowers Capsule vocabularies
LeGal English_ _Brand_ & _Tracemark_(1)
ES-EN legal translators (and lawyers and professors) often require a minimum basic vocabulary in a specific area of law, something that they will be hard pressed to find searching word-by-word in a dictionary. (In this case, the “problem” with dictionaries is that they are in alphabetical order.) Blog entries labeled “Capsule Vocabularies” will feature some of the basic terminology lists developed for use by my students of legal English that I hope may also be of interest to translator and interpreter colleagues and other legal professionals.

Marcas (Trademarks)

• Derecho de marcas; Derecho marcario—trademark law
• marca—trademark; trade mark (UK)
• marca denominativa—word mark
• marca gráfica—device/design mark
• marca mixta—composite mark
• marca publicitaria—slogan mark
• marca de fantasía—fanciful mark
• marca tridimensional—three-dimensional mark
• marca sonora—sound mark
• marca de garantía—certification mark
• marca colectiva—collective mark
• marca de servicio—service mark
• marca notoria—well-known mark (known to consumers in the sector)
• marca renombrada—renowned mark (known to the public in general)
• marca anterior—earlier mark
• marca prioritaria—prior mark
• marcas confrontadas—conflicting marks
• marcas idénticas—identical marks
• marcas incompatibles/confundibles/que inducen a confusión—confusingly similar marks
• marca descriptiva—descriptive mark
• marca consolidada/inatacable—incontestable mark
• marca multiclase—multi-class mark
• marca defensiva—defensive mark; defensive registration

 

Source: Rebecca Jowers. Léxico temático de terminología jurídica español-inglés. Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch, 2015, pp. 925-926.

 

Mistranslations (?) of Derecho hipotecario

rebeccajowers Mistranslations?

Is this really a mistranslation_

Derecho hipotecario; Ley hipotecaria; Distrito Hipotecario

Translators unfamiliar with Spanish law often automatically assume that the adjectives hipotecario and hipotecaria refer exclusively to mortgages (hipotecas). Thus there is an assumption that Derecho hipotecario is limited to “mortgage law” and that Ley hipotecaria refers to legislation specifically governing mortgages, and these mistakes have found their way into several bilingual legal dictionaries.

Although traditionally called Derecho hipotecario, in Spain this branch of law actually concerns the registration of rights in real property on the Land Register (Registro de la Propiedad). The fact that Derecho hipotecario is a misnomer (and that Derecho inmobiliario registral is a more accurate term) has been recognized in multiple Spanish legal sources. For example, Luis Ribó Durán in his Diccionario de Derecho (Bosch, 2005) explains that

“Derecho hipotecario es la parte del Derecho que estudia la adquisición, transmisión, modificación y extinción de los derechos sobre bienes inmuebles en cuanto éstos se reflejan en el Registro de la Propiedad. (…) La denominación Derecho inmobiliario registral, posiblemente la más adecuada, ha sido muchas veces postergada ante la de Derecho hipotecario, de más rancia tradición al enlazar con el nombre de la ley especial que, antes de la promulgación del vigente Código Civil, desmarcó de éste la materia inmobiliaria registral…”.

Likewise, in its article on “Derecho inmobiliario registral,” the Gran Enciclopedia Rialp (1991) notes that

“…generalmente, entre los autores españoles, se llama ‘Derecho hipotecario,’ denominación que obedece al título de la ley que regula la materia, la Ley Hipotecaria. Es claro que el nombre de la ley no responde a su contenido, pues en ella se regula, además de la hipoteca, todo referente al Registro de la Propiedad.”

Thus, rendering Derecho hipotecario as “mortgage law” is misleading, while a translation that accurately reflects the true content of this legal discipline in Spain might be “Law of Land (or) Real Estate Registration” or “Land (or) Real Estate Registration Law,” etc. (The Registro de la Propiedad for England and Wales is called the “Land Registry.” There is no centralized land register for real property in the US where real estate is recorded in the state where it is located.)

Similarly, Ley Hipotecaria really cannot be appropriately translated as “Mortgage Act,” as it is often rendered. Although, as indicated above, part of the Ley Hipotecaria (93 articles) does indeed deal with mortgages per se, the true subject of the law (329 articles) is actually land registration, setting forth how the property registry (Registro de la Propiedad) is to be organized and stipulating the duties of property registrars (Registradores de la Propiedad). Thus, in this case Ley Hipotecaria might be more properly translated as “Land Registration Act” or “(Real) Property Registration Act,” while there may be other instances in which a law might be accurately described as a “mortgage act,” such as the Ley del Mercado Hipotecario (“Mortgage Market Act”).

In other respects, the expression Distrito Hipotecario is sometimes rendered as “Mortgage District,” but actually refers to a “land (or) property tax district.” And Oficina Liquidadora del Distrito Hipotecario denotes a “district land (or) property tax office” in charge of collecting transfer taxes and stamp duties levied on the transfer of real property and other transactions (impuestos sobre transmisiones patrimoniales y actos jurídicos documentados), as well as inheritance and gift taxes (impuestos sobre sucesiones y donaciones).

Confusing Terms: Who’s the victim? (víctima; agraviado; ofendido; perjudicado)

rebeccajowers Confusing Terms

 

In English the person against whom a criminal offense is perpetrated is the “victim.” But ES-EN translators are often puzzled to find that the seemingly equivalent term víctima is not always the one used in Spain in the Criminal Code (Código Penal) or in the Criminal Procedure Act (Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal). In effect, although víctima is perhaps the most prevalent term, references to el agraviado por el delito and especially to el ofendido y perjudicado por el delito are frequent in both texts, and sometimes appear together in the same article. Article 771.1 of the LeCrim reads, “(la Policía Judicial) cumplirá con los deberes de información a las víctimas que prevé la legislación vigente. En particular, informará al ofendido y al perjudicado por el delito de forma escrita de los derechos que les asisten…” Ofendido, perjudicado and víctima likewise appear together in Article 776.1.

Although there is often a good bit of imprecision and overlapping in their use, ofendido (and often agraviado) generally denote the direct victim of a crime, defined as the person whose legally-protected interest has been injured by the offense, the titular del bien jurídico protegido lesionado por el delito and, thus, el titular de la acción penal. In contrast, where a distinction is made, perjudicado generally denotes the person who has sustained an injury arising from the offense (que sufre económicamente o moralmente las consequencias del delito) and who is susceptible to being compensated with an award of civil damages, i.e., the sujeto pasivo del daño civil indemnizable or titular de la acción civil. This is the actor civil in criminal proceedings, the party seeking an award of damages based on civil liability incurred during the commission of an offense (reclamación de la responsabilidad civil derivada de la comisión de un delito). And, indeed, the ofendido (or) agraviado (the direct victim of the offense) and the perjudicado (the person who may claim damages from civil liability arising from the offense) are usually, but not necessarily, the same person. Víctima may refer to both.

As Professor Martín Ríos has noted, la coincidencia en una misma persona de las cualidades de ofendido y perjudicado no solo es posible, sino que constituye el supuesto habitual a que da lugar la comisión de un delito o falta. Pese a hacer referencia a realidades diferenciables, para designar ambas posiciones hablamos (en un sentido criminológico) de ‘víctima.’ Dentro de tal concepto incluimos, por tanto, al sujeto pasivo del delito (el ofendido) como a quien directamente sufre, en su esfera patrimonial, los efectos del mismo (el perjudicado).”*

And, as a simple example to clarify the ofendido-perjudicado concept, in el delito de homicidio the ofendido is the person who dies as a consequence of the offense, while his surviving spouse and children would be the perjudicados.

In summary, the lexical (and legal) complexities of these terms are undoubtedly oversimplified in this explanation. And unless a distinction must be made in translation between the victim of a crime and the person claiming civil damages as a result of that offense, agraviado, ofendido, víctima and, often, perjudicado may usually be rendered simply as “victim.” In that regard it is perhaps best to avoid the confusing literal renderings that sometimes appear in translation (“injured party,” “the offended,” “the wronged party,” “the aggrieved,” etc.), since they may imply that the person in question is someone other than the victim of the crime.

*Mª del Pilar Martín Ríos. El ejercicio de la acción civil en el proceso penal: una aproximación victimólogica. (Madrid: La Ley, 2007), p. 42.

Capsule Vocabularies: auditorías

rebeccajowers Capsule vocabularies
ES-EN legal translators (and lawyers and professors) often require a minimum basic vocabulary in a specific area of law, something that they will be hard pressed to find searching word-by-word in a dictionary. (In this case, the “problem” with dictionaries is that they are in alphabetical order.) Blog entries labeled “Capsule Vocabularies” will feature some of the basic terminology lists developed for my students of legal English that I hope may also be of interest to translator and interpreter colleagues and other legal professionals.

Auditorías (Audits)

• Normas Internacionales de Auditoría (NIA)—International Standards on Auditing (ISA)
• sociedad de auditoría—audit firm; auditing company
• comité de auditoría—audit committee
• contrato de auditoría; carta de encargo; carta-propuesta—audit contract
• honorarios del auditor—auditor’s fees
• auditoría de cuentas; censura de cuentas—auditing of accounts
• auditoría de las cuentas anuales—audit of annual accounts/financial statements
• auditoría annual—annual audit
• auditoría especial—special audit
• auditor; censor—auditor
• censor jurado de cuentas—certified auditor
• auditor individual—individual auditor
• auditor independiente—independent auditor
• auditor interno—internal auditor
• documentación de auditoría (papeles de trabajo)—audit documentation (working papers)
• imagen fiel—true and fair view; fair presentation
• imagen fiel del patrimonio y de la situación financiera de la empresa auditada—true and fair view of the audited company’s assets and financial position
• marco de información financiera applicable—applicable financial reporting framework
• marco de imagen fiel—fair presentation framework
• marco de cumplimiento—compliance framework
• evidencia de auditoría—audit evidence
• riesgo de auditoría—audit risk
• riesgo inherente—inherent risk
• riesgo de control—control risk
• riesgo de detección—detection risk
• riesgo de incorrección—misstatement risk; risk of misstatement
• juicio professional—profesional judgment
• escepticismo professional—professional skepcticism
• seguridad razonable—reasonable assurance
• informe de auditoría—audit report
• opinión de los auditores—auditors’ opinion
• opinión favorable—unqualified opinion; clean opinion
• opinión con salvedades—qualified opinion
• opinión desfavorable—adverse opinion
• opinion denegada—disclaimer of opinion

Español Jurídico: Ley penal en blanco

rebeccajowers Español jurídico

CRIMINAL L

Ley penal en blanco is one of those impossible-to-translate expressions that is not a patently civil law term but rather, like much of Spanish criminal law terminology, was adopted from the German. The first problem is to understand the concept, and then to find an appropriate rendering. As defined in Aranzadi’s Diccionario Jurídico,* “las leyes o normas penales en blanco se caracterizan porque en ellas la disposición penal se limita a fijar taxativamente la consecuencia jurídica, esto es, la pena, pero no define exhaustivamente el supuesto de hecho del delito, sino que remite a otra norma del Derecho Civil, Mercantil, Administrativo, Social o Comunitario, de suerte que es esta última la que fija o describe la conducta sancionada por la norma penal.”

Thus, simply stated, a ley penal en blanco is a penal law that provides the penalty for a criminal offense, while the offense itself is defined in another law or regulation. Article 316 of the Spanish Criminal Code provides a clear example of a ley penal en blanco:

Los que con infracción de las normas de prevención de riesgos laborales y estando legalmente obligados, no faciliten los medios necesarios para que los trabajadores desempeñen su actividad con las medidas de seguridad e higiene adecuadas, de forma que pongan así en peligro grave su vida, salud o integridad física, serán castigados con las penas de prisión de seis meses a tres años y multa de seis a doce meses.

Here the pena (sentence) is clearly stipulated (prisión de seis meses a tres años y multa de seis a doce meses), but the tipo penal (definition of the unlawful act) is left “blank” to be “filled in” by another law or regulation, in this case, in the normas de prevención de riesgos.

The original German term is Blankettstrafgesetz:

La expresión “ley penal en blanco” (que corresponde con la traducción del término “Blanketstrafgesetz”) se debe a Binding. Este autor la propuso por primera vez en 1872… para hacer referencia a un particular grupo de normas que recogía el Código Penal en las que, aunque se preveía la sanción a aplicar, se asignaba a supuestos de infracción de disposiciones establecidas por autoridades administrativas.**

In his “Principles of German Criminal Law,” Michael Bohlander defines leyes en blanco (Blankettgesetze, or Blankettnorms) as acts of Parliament “that do not contain (all) the elements of the offense, but refer to other legislation for that purpose.”*** But Bohlander translates these terms as “blanket acts,” a translation that I believe those unfamiliar with the concept might misunderstand as referring to a “blanket (or) umbrella law” designed to address a broad range of offenses. Likewise, the literal rendering “criminal law in blank” appearing in several sources obviously fails to convey the true meaning of the expression.

Since there is really no common law counterpart for ley (or) norma penal en blanco, I am offering below three possible “definitional translations,” adapted from explanations appearing in several Spanish criminal law sources:

• criminal norm/law that defines the punishment but that refers to another non-penal law to define the offense (ley penal que establece la pena pero que remite a otra ley no penal para definir el delito)

• criminal norm in which the criminal conduct is defined by reference to another non-penal norm (norma penal cuyo supuesto de hecho se configure por remisión de una norma de carácter no penal)

• norm that contains the punishment but does not describe the prohibited or sanctioned conduct (norma que contiene la sanción pero no describe las acciones prohibidas o sancionadas)

*Juan Manuel Fernández Martínez, Coord. Diccionario Jurídico. Cizur Menor (Navarra): Thompson-Aranzadi, 2004.

**Antonio Doval País. Posibilidades y límites para la formulación de las normas penales. El caso de las leyes en blanco. Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch, 1999, p. 95.

***Michael Bohlander. Principles of German Criminal Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2009, p. 11.

For further reading:

Francisco Muñoz Conde and Mercedes García Arán. Derecho Penal-Parte General. Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch, 1998 (there are later editions), pp. 40-43; 122-126.

José Luis Díez Ripollés. Derecho Penal Español-Parte General en Esquemas. Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch, 2007, pp. 57-58; 66.

Confusing Terms: fusión is not always a “merger”

rebeccajowers Confusing Terms
Legal Synonyms,Confusing Terms(what's the difference between..._)
Many confusing terms in legal Spanish and English are simply legal synonyms that are not always clearly distinguishable, often making it necessary to learn how each one is used in a specific context or in “set” phrases (frases hechas). Some may be interchangeable; others are limited to use in specific contexts. Those highlighted in this blog are ones that I have seen confused in translation or that my students and lawyer clients have found most difficult to distinguish.

fusión por absorción; fusión por creación

merger; consolidation; concentration

In English the term “merger” is often used informally and generically to refer to any type of amalgamation of business entities (fusión de sociedades). But in its strictest sense merger more properly denotes “the absorption of one organization (that ceases to exist) into another that retains its own name and acquires the assets and liabilities of the former.* In Spain and in other Spanish-speaking jurisdictions this is known as fusión por absorción, and the surviving company is referred to as the sociedad absorbente, while the merged (or) “absorbed” company that ceases to exist is known as the sociedad absorbida.

In contrast, in what is properly called a “consolidation” there is a “unification of two or more corporations or other organizations by dissolving the existing ones and creating a single new corporation or organization.”* In Spanish this is known as fusión por creación de sociedad nueva. Thus, although fusión and “merger” are often used generically to denote both concepts, fusión por absorción is “merger,” while fusión por creación (de sociedad nueva) is more properly “consolidation.”

In other respects, especially in EU competition law, mergers are typically referred to as “concentrations” (concentraciones), and “merger control” is rendered as control de concentraciones or control de operaciones de concentración.

Vocabulary recap:

fusión de sociedades—merger (generic)
fusión por absorción—merger
sociedad absorbente—surviving entity (company, corporation, etc.)
sociedad absorbida—merged entity (company, corporation, etc.)
fusion por creación (de sociedad nueva)—consolidation
concentración—merger
control de concentraciones; control de operaciones de concentración–merger control

*Black’s Law Dictionary, 8th ed.

Expressing Civil Law Concepts in Common Law Terms: derechos reales

rebeccajowers Expressing Civil Law Concepts in Common Law Terms

ExpressingCivil LawConcepts

Derechos reales (often called “real rights” en English-speaking civil law jurisdictions) are “rights (or interests) in property” (“property rights;” “rights in rem”) and the expression has sometimes been mistranslated as “real property rights.” However, derechos reales may actually denote a series of rights or interests in both bienes inmuebles (“real property,” “real estate” or “realty,” sometimes referred to as “immovables”) and bienes muebles (“personal property,” “personalty,” or “chattels”, sometimes referred to as “movables”). Although civil law textbooks may group them differently, traditional classifications of derechos reales include the following:

1) derecho real provisional—temporary rights in property, i.e., posesión (“possession”)

2) derecho real pleno—full rights in property, i.e., dominio (or) propiedad (“ownership”); and

3) derechos reales limitados—limited rights in property, which are subdivided into three large categories:

3.1) derechos reales de goce—rights to the enjoyment of property including usufructo, uso, habitación, servidumbres, censos, enfiteusis, and superficie;

3.2) derechos reales de garantía—security interests in property, including prenda, hipoteca, anticresis, prenda sin desplazamiento de la posesión and hipoteca mobiliaria; and

3.3) derechos de adquisición preferente—preferential rights in the acquisition of property, including tanteo, retracto and opción de compra.

In future posts I will explore the terminology of several of these limited property rights in more detail, but for now here are some useful definitions for some of those that may be less well-known** with possible English translations and explanations.

• derecho real de goce—enjoyment rights; rights of use and enjoyment; right to use and enjoy another’s property: facultad de uso de las cosas pertenecientes a otro; also called derecho real de disfrute, which implies the use and enjoyment of the proceeds (frutos) from the property

• usufructo—right to use and reap the proceeds of another’s property, with the obligation to preserve its form and substance: derecho de usar y percibir los frutos de cosas ajenas, con la obligación de conservar su forma y sustancia; called “usufruct” in English-speaking civilian systems and often translated as “beneficial ownership,” usufructuario or “beneficial owner” denoting the beneficiary of a usufruct,  while the owner of the property given in usufruct is the nudo propietario (“naked owner”).

• derecho real de uso—usage rights: derecho de usar una cosa ajena con el derecho a disfrute limitado a las necesidades del usuario y su familia (right to use another’s property with the right to proceeds from the property limited to covering the needs of the user and his family)

• derecho real de habitación—dwelling rights; habitation rights; rights of habitation: derecho de ocupar en casa ajena las piezas necesarias para si mismo y las personas de su familia (right to occupy in another’s home the rooms necessary for oneself and one’s family; the beneficiary of dwelling rights is known as an habitacionista (“dwelling/habitation rightsholder”)

• servidumbre—easement, also often called “servitude” in English-speaking civil law jurisdictions: gravamen impuesto sobre un inmueble en beneficio de otro perteneciente a distinto dueño (encumbrance imposed on one parcel of land benefiting the owner of another one)

• censos—various types of ground rent or annuity rights arrangements: sujeción de un inmueble al pago de un canon o rédito anual en retribución de un capital en dinero o del dominio pleno o menos pleno que se transmite en los mismos bienes (burden on real property consisting of the payment of an annuity in exchange for a cash amount or for the transfer of ownership or lesser rights in that same property)

• enfiteusis—emphyteusis, a type of ground rent arrangement, also called censo enfitéutico: cesión del dominio útil de una finca, con reserva del dominio directo y el derecho de recibir a cambio una pensión anual (grant of beneficial ownership in a parcel of land, reserving title to that property and the right to receive an annuity in exchange)

• derecho real de superficie—surface rights; building (or) planting rights: facultad de construir o plantar en suelo ajeno por un determinado período de tiempo, adquiriendo la propiedad de lo construido o plantado (right to build or cultivate on another’s land for a given term, acquiring ownership of the building or crops)

• derechos reales de garantía—security interests in property

• prenda—pledge

• hipoteca—mortgage

• anticresis—antichresis: facultad del acreedor de ostentar el goce posesorio de un inmueble y de aplicar los frutos percibidos al pago de los intereses, o en su caso, al capital debido (creditor’s right to possession and enjoyment of an item of real property and to apply the proceeds therefrom to the payment of interest, or when warranted, to the capital owed him)

• prenda sin desplazamiento de la posesión (often shortened to prenda sin desplazamiento)—nonpossessory pledge; (nonpossesory) security interest in personal property

• hipoteca mobiliaria—chattel mortgage

• derechos de adquisición preferente—preferential rights in the acquisition of property

• tanteo—right of first refusal; first-refusal right; preferential purchase right: facultad de adquirir una cosa que va a ser enajenada a un tercero, por el mismo precio y en las mismas condiciones pactadas entre el vendedor y el tercero (right to purchase property that is going to be sold to a third party, at the same price and under the same conditions agreed between the seller and that third party)

• retracto—right to set aside a sale; right to set aside/revoke/vacate a sale or other conveyance after its completion and acquire the item sold: facultad de adquirir una cosa cuando su propietario ya la ha enajenado a un tercero (right to acquire a property when it has already been sold to a third party)

• opción de compra—purchase option

**The source of these definitions and a great place to learn more: Carlos Lasarte, Principios de Derecho Civil,” Vols. IV and V (Propiedad y derechos reales de goce; Derechos reales y Derecho hipotecario) Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2002 (there are several later editions!)