Month: November 2019

False Friends Fridays: a new pair each week! (tráfico; traffic)

rebeccajowers False Friends

False Friends Fridays new

Legal translators will probably agree that when learning legal terminology in a bilingual context, one of the first pitfalls we encounter are the so-called “false friends,” words or expressions that appear to be cognates but may actually be unrelated in meaning. Many years ago I set about identifying the “Top 40 False Friends in Spanish-English Legal Translation.” As the list grew I had to change the title to “101 False Friends.” In my collection I now have well over that number and to-date have included 33 of them in this blog. And starting today (y hasta agotar existencias), I’ll be sharing a new pair on this site each Friday.

To be fair, I should note that some of the word pairs highlighted are only partial false friends that may actually be cognates when used in one branch of law, while perhaps qualifying as false friends in another legal practice area. And in some instances the cognate may simply not be the most appropriate rendering in legal contexts.

So to start out, let’s look at

tráfico and traffic

Tráfico must logically be rendered as “traffic” in many contexts, as in tráfico aéreo (“air traffic”), tráfico rodado (“road traffic” or “vehicular traffic”), delitos contra la seguridad del tráfico (“traffic offenses”) or accidente de tráfico (“traffic accident”). The term must likewise be translated as “trafficking” in expressions such as tráfico de drogas (“drug trafficking,” also called narcotráfico), tráfico de armas (“arms trafficking”) or tráfico de personas (“human trafficking”).

But in certain contexts tráfico refers to different aspects of “commerce” or “trade” such as in usos de tráfico (“commercial practice”); tráfico mercantil (“commercial trade” or “commercial transactions”) and tráfico intercomunitario (“intra-EU trade”). Likewise, in accounting terminology acreedores y deudores por operaciones de tráfico are respectively “trade creditors and debtors” or “trade payables and receivables.” Tráfico may also be used as a synonym of tránsito: tráfico marítimo (“maritime shipping”). And the criminal law concept of tráfico de influencias is generally rendered as “influence peddling.”

Spanish Translations of “Breach”

rebeccajowers Multiple Meanings

Legal Terms with Multiple Meanings

“Breach” is one of those multi-hued words in Legal English that requires many different translations when rendered into Spanish. “Breach of contract” (also: “contract default” or “contractual nonperformance”) is the English term for incumplimiento contractual. “Breach of trust” may be rendered as abuso de confianza, while “breach of fiduciary duty” corresponds to what in Spanish corporate law is termed adminstración desleal, describing the acts of a director or manager when acting ultra vires.

“Breach of duty” is sometimes rendered as omisión del deber, while “breach of the peace” (also: “disturbing the peace” or “disorderly conduct”) is an offense akin to the Spanish alteración del orden público or atentado contra la paz pública. Likewise in criminal law contexts, “breach of sentence” (also: “sentence violation”) is quebrantamiento de condena, while “prison breach” (also: “prison break”) more specifically denotes a fuga de prisión or, more formally, quebrantamiento de la condena privativa de libertad. And as a final example, a “data breach” entails some form of violación de la seguridad de datos, as defined in the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (Reglamento General de Protección de Datos).

Ellipsis in Legal Spanish: circunstancias modificativas

rebeccajowers Ellipsis in Legal Language

Ellipsis in Legal Spanish

circunstancias modificativas

agravantes; atenuantes; eximentes

Circunstancias modificativas is an ellipted expression used in Spanish criminal law contexts to denote certain circumstances that may aggravate or mitigate criminal liability, or even exonerate a person accused of an offense. The complete expression, with the ellipted part included is circunstancias modificativas de la responsabilidad criminal” (articles 19-23 of the Spanish Código Penal).

Other ellipses used in this context include agravantes (circunsancias agravantes) or “aggravating circumstances” that may increase the degree of criminal liability; atenuantes (circunstancias atenuantes) or “mitigating circumstances” that may reduce the degree of culpability; and eximentes (circunstancias eximentes), literally “exonerating circumstances” that, if successful at trial, may preclude criminal liability and which are known broadly in English as “defenses to criminal liability.”

Read more here and here.

False Friends: accidental and “accidental”

rebeccajowers False Friends

false friends purple

Accidental has several meanings in which the term cannot be appropriately rendered in English as “accidental.” This is the case when accidental is used in the sense of “provisional” or “temporary.” Thus, for example, the expression secretario accidental denotes an “acting (or) interim secretary.” Likewise, el decano accidental del Colegio de Abogados refers to an “acting (or) interim president of the Bar Association.”

Accidental may also mean sin formalidad jurídica (DLE). In that regard, in Spanish business law sociedad accidental is another expression for contrato de cuentas en participación, an informal business vehicle in which a party may privately contribute capital to a business venture with a view to sharing in the profits (arts. 239-243 of the Spanish Código de Comercio). As used in this context, sociedad accidental has often been translated as “partnership” or “joint venture,” although in Spain it lacks the usual legal formalities required to set up most businesses, being a simple pacto que no requiere escritura ni inscripción en el Registro Mercantil.