| CODE | ECL5065 | |||||||||
| TITLE | EU Legal Translation and Drafting EN/MT | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | European and Comparative Law | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | The study-unit's objectives is to train law students familiarise themselves with EU legal translation and drafting. In particular it helps them prepare to work as lawyer-linguists for the Maltese language in the various European institutions as well as introduce them to language issues in EU law and legislative drafting in general. The study-unit will introduce students to the EU legal terminology in English and French as source languages and Maltese as a target language. Particular emphasis is put on the new Maltese jargon used in the Court of Justice of the European Union judgments as well as the use of Maltese in the MT version of EU legal instruments. It will update students with the relevant Maltese language rules plus introduce EU translation software. The second part of the study-unit will focus on EU legislative drafting. The study-unit will be taught through a mixture of lectures, tutorials and computer laboratory seminars. The impact envisaged is that local law students would be fully aware of the need of the MT language as an official language in EU law. The study-unit will stimulate the use of Maltese in EU law. Students will be encouraged to participate in projects involving legal drafting in English and Maltese plus they would be encouraged to acquire skills in legal translation from EN and FR into Maltese. The study-unit will first start with a series of lectures about role of languages in EU law and will focus on Maltese legal terminology. The students will then be introduced to actual translation of legal texts from EN and FR into MT. This will include both legal instruments and CJEU’s actual judgments. Lectures will then follow on EU legal drafting skills. This will be complement by some lectures on legal Maltese and the relevant Maltese grammar/orthographic rules plus an introduction to IT software used in the process of legal translation. Lectures will be given by the study-unit coordinator though some experts in Maltese, IT software and Maltese lawyer linguists may be invited as guest speakers. Lectures will be followed by a few specialised tutorials in smaller groups where students can prepare a presentation and debate the issues. Study-unit Aims: - To introduce the students to the use of Maltese in EU law. - To learn and update Maltese languages rules as used in EU legal documents. - To learn about EU legal translation and drafting. - To introduce the students to EU lawyer-linguist. - To introduce the students to language and IT tools used in the drafting of EU law in Maltese. - To introduce the students to the use of Maltese at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Appreciate and learn the use of the Maltese language in EU law to keep updated with ongoing developments. - Learn translation and drafting techniques in EU law. - Recognise the use of IT software in the drafting and Translation of EU law. - Demonstrate writing techniques in Maltese re EU law. - Sit for the competition as lawyer-linguist organized by EPSO. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Use the Maltese language in EU law. - participate in the EPSO competition to work as lawyer-linguists with the EU institutions. - translate into MT EU law & EU legislative documents. - familiarise oneself with tools used in drafting and legislating EU law in MT. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: EU legal instruments ECJ judgements - Agius Peter, It-Traduzzjoni tal-Ligi Ewropea, Malta University Publishing, 2011. - Helen Xanthaki, Thornton’s Legislative Drafting, (forthcoming 2013, Bloomsbury, London). - Helen Xanthaki, Drafting Legislation: Art and Technology of Rules for Regulation, (forthcoming 2014, Hart Publishers, Oxford). - Helen Xanthaki (ed), Drafting Legislation: A Modern Approach – in Memoriam of Sir William Dale, (2008, Ashgate-Dartmouth, Aldershot) (together with Constantin Stefanou) - Helen Xanthaki, “Crossing the borders between legislative drafting and linguistics: linguists to the aid of legislative drafters” 1 [2013] Law, Language and Interdisciplinary Practice. - Helen Xanthaki, “Editorial: Burying the Hatchet Between Common and Civil Law Drafting Styles in Europe” 6 [2012] Legisprudence, pp. 133-148. - Helen Xanthaki, “Editorial: Legislative Drafting: Can we learn from each other?” [2011] The Commonwealth Law Bulletin. - Helen Xanthaki, “Duncan Berry: A true visionary of training in legislative drafting” [2011] The Loophole, pp.18-26. - Helen Xanthaki, “Legal transplants in legislation: defusing the trap” 57 [2008] International and Comparative Law Quarterly, pp.659-673. - Helen Xanthaki, “Quality and transposition of EU legislation: a tool for accession and membership to the EU” 4 [2006] European Journal of Law Reform, pp.89-110. |
|||||||||
| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-requisite Qualifications: Good knowledge of written Maltese First preference will be given to Year 3 LLD students. |
|||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lectures, Practical and Tutorials | |||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
|
|||||||||
| LECTURER/S | ||||||||||
|
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
||||||||||