Jurisprudencia and “jurisprudence” are another pair of look-alikes that shouldn’t be confused. Jurisprudencia is the Spanish term for “caselaw” (“case law” in British English, also called “decisional law”), that is, judgments rendered by courts of justice, while in its strictest sense “jurisprudence” is the science of law or legal theory (sharing some of the content of the disciplines of Teoría del Derecho and Filosofía del Derecho as traditionally taught in Spanish law schools). Thus jurisprudencia del Tribunal Supremo refers to “Supreme Court caselaw,” while expressions such as jurisprudencia (or) doctrina jurisprudencial sentada/reiterada/pácifica denote “established (or) settled caselaw.” In that regard, in Spanish published collections of caselaw or electronically-accessible caselaw databases are called repertorios de jurisprudencia, which are variously known in English as “law reports,” “law reporters,” “caselaw reports,” or “caselaw reporters.”

Despite the above, it should be noted that the term “jurisprudence” is sometimes used in English with the meaning of “caselaw,” particularly in jurisdictions where French is or formerly was the official language, such as Quebec and Louisiana. In Louisiana, for example, established or settled caselaw is called “jurisprudence constante.” Likewise, “jurisprudence” is sometimes used with the meaning of “caselaw” in documents issued in English by international organizations in which French is one of the official languages, notably the European Union and Council of Europe. As an example, EU institutions often use “caselaw” and “jurisprudence” as synonyms, such as on the European Commission’s Banking and Finance webpage where the two terms are used interchangeably. In that regard, the webpage contains a “Guide to the case law of the European Court of Justice” and “Case law on ‘golden shares’” alongside a “Chronological overview of selected jurisprudence” and “Selected jurisprudence by topic.”*

* http://ec.europa.eu/finance/capital/framework/court/index_en.htm#maincontentSec1

Órgano and “organ” are another pair of often-confused “false friends”. They are certainly cognates when used in legal (and other) contexts to refer to organs of the human body, as in transplante de órganos (“organ transplants”) or donantes de órganos (“organ donors”). And órgano may likewise be rendered as “organ” when referring to periodicals published by organizations such as political parties, as in Granma, Órgano Oficial del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba (“Granma, Official Organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba”).

But in other legal contexts órgano often more appropriately denotes an “institution,” “governing body,” “board” or “agency.” Examples include órgano consultivo (“advisory body,” “advisory board”); órgano de gobierno (“governing body”); órgano de la Unión Europea (“institution of the European Union”) or órganos de la Administración del Estado (“governmental agencies”).

As another example, órganos constitucionales del Estado denotes the principal “institutions of the Spanish state” created and regulated in the Constitution, including the Crown (la Corona), the Spanish parliament (las Cortes Generales) comprising the House of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) and Senate (Senado), the government (Gobierno), Constitutional Court (Tribunal Constitucional) and the General Council of the Judiciary (Consejo General del Poder Judicial).

And special mention should be made of the use of órgano in the sense of “court.” In that regard, órgano jurisdiccional and órgano judicial are generic expressions for “court” that are used when no distinction needs to be made between juzgados (courts with a single sitting judge) and tribunales (multi-judge courts in which several judges, usually three, sit in panels). Indeed juzgados and tribunales are often referred to respectively as órganos unipersonales and órganos colegiados. Thus, for example, in this context el órgano que dictó sentencia denotes the “court that rendered judgment,” órganos judiciales competentes are “courts of competent jurisdiction,” and the expression órganos jurisdiccionales del orden civil is a general reference to the “civil courts.”

I recently began developing a new unit for my students that I call “Inglés Jurídico 101” in which I outline the mistakes that they just can’t afford to make if they claim to know legal English. The first section focuses on the most common legal “false cognates” (false friends; falsos amigos), those dangerous look-alikes that can make you say something you really don’t mean if you don’t distinguish between the two terms in question. In this and in future blog posts I will be sharing some of my favorites.

A really basic pair of “false friends” is magistrado and magistrate. Distinguishing the difference shouldn’t present a problem but, unfortunately, magistrado has been mistranslated as “magistrate” dozens (or maybe hundreds) of times, even on official judicial websites.

So what is a “magistrate”? In England and Wales magistrates (also known as “justices of the peace”) are lay judges (jueces legos) who have no formal legal training. They preside over Magistrates Courts, lower courts where criminal proceedings are first brought, and which likewise handle some civil matters. The webpage of the UK Courts and Tribunals Judiciary describes them as “21,500 volunteer judicial office holders who serve in magistrates’ courts throughout England and Wales… Magistrates do not require legal training or qualifications.”* In the United States, US federal magistrate judges (who do hold law degrees and have been admitted to the bar) assist in district courts (i.e., the federal trial courts) exercising the jurisdiction delegated to them by law and assigned to them by the district court judge.

So why can’t magistrado be translated as “magistrate”? Because in contrast to magistrates, magistrados are the highest level of judge in Spain (and in other Spanish-speaking jurisdictions), defined as funcionario perteneciente a la carrera judicial de categoría superior a la de juez (Diccionario Jurídico Colex). Indeed, magistrados generally sit in panels on the higher, appellate courts. In that regard, the judges on the Spanish Supreme Court and Constitutional Court are known respectively as Magistrados del Tribunal Supremo and Magistrados del Tribunal Constitucional.

Thus, confusing magistrado and magistrate would appear to be a beginner’s mistake and, yet, this mistranslation has been propagated by many, even official, sources. As an example, the English translation of the Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial appearing on the webpage of Spain’s Consejo General del Poder Judicial** refers to “Magistrates of the Constitutional and the Supreme Court.” Likewise, the expression jueces y magistrados, so often repeated in the law, is rendered as “judges and magistrates.”

As for an appropriate translation, magistrado can most often be rendered simply as “judge.” If a distinction has to be made between juez and magistrado, perhaps magistrado may be translated as “senior judge,” described as a member of a multi-judge court (órgano colegiado) or, where warranted, referred to as an “appellate court judge.”

*https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/about-the-judiciary/who-are-the-judiciary/judicial-roles/magistrates/

**www.poderjudicial.es/…/20160125%20LOPJ%20inglés%2012-2015.pdf

Note: Judges promoted to the category of magistrado who choose to continue to preside over a lower court (juzgado) are called magistrado-jueces.