Legal translation and ISO standards : a case study

• Main Author: See, Tingting
• Other Authors: Arista Kuo
• Format: Thesis-Master by Coursework
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Humanities::Language
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/148785
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Legal translation refers to the translation of documents of a legal nature and is a highly specialized area in the field of translation. However, due to the nature and confidentiality of legal documents, it is difficult to access legal translations and assess its quality in general. There was no standardized quality assessment for legal translations till April 2020, when the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published ISO 20771:2020. ISO 20771: 2020 sets out the best practices, translation process and requirements for legal translators, revisers and reviewers, including their competencies and qualifications. ISO 17100:2015 sets out guidelines with regards to translation services while ISO 9001:2015 is the general standardization guidelines with regards to quality management system. Language Service Providers (LSPs) have sought to inspire confidence in their patrons through proclaiming on their websites that they are ISO 9001:2015 or ISO 17100:2015 certified. However, few studies have been carried out to understand the cost-benefits of engaging an ISO certified LSP and that of engaging a non-ISO certified LSP; the existing literature on whether ISO certified LSPs can produce better quality output of legal translation is lacking. Moreover, there has been no research endeavours undertaken to examine patrons’ expectations of legal translation and their views with regards to costs and quality of legal translation. Accordingly, the aims of this dissertation are to (a) assess whether ISO certified LSPs produce translation of better quality than non-ISO certified LSPs do; (b) analyse the cost-benefits of engaging an ISO certified LSP as compared to a non-ISO certified LSP and (c) identify factors that affect patrons’ motivation in the selection of LSPs for legal translation. This study is in the form of a case study where legal texts were outsourced to LSPs for translation and the translations produced by ISO certified LSPs and non-ISO certified LSP are examined. ISO certified LSPs and non-ISO certified LSPs are identified based on online internet searches. The cost-benefits of engaging an ISO certified LSP compared to a non-ISO certified LSP for legal translation were reviewed and a survey was conducted amongst 27 working adults to understand their expectations of legal translation. The results showed that ISO certified LSPs do produce legal translations of better quality. The findings also showed that patrons are willing to pay more for quality legal translation and that patrons tend to have higher expectations of legal translation which is meant to be legally binding as opposed to one for reference only.