Resumen de A Mutual Learning Exercise in Terminology and Multilingual Law
Martina Bajčić, Adrijana Martinović
While it is true that legal language strives for precision, legal concepts are often vague. This seeming paradox can be observed in light of the fact that legal concepts need to be applied to different real-life situations in order to account for the changing social circumstances. By focusing on the important role of terminology in general, and concepts in particular, for the mechanism of the law, this chapter poses the following question: How do courts cope with vague concepts of EU Law and inadequate terms in translations of EU Law? Emphasis is placed on EU Competition Law concepts from the dual perspective of law and language. Applying terminology as a linguistic discipline which studies terms, concepts and the conceptual structure, can further understanding of EU Competition Law concepts. On the other hand, examining how the Court of Justice of the EU grapples with the meaning of vague EU Law concepts and how it resolves divergences between language versions in its case law, provides valuable assistance for legal practitioners, and translators. With this in mind it can be claimed that to overcome vagueness and linguistic discrepancies, lawyers and linguists need to engage in a continuous exercise of mutual learning. Whatever criticism is leveled at the language of the law for its notoriously imprecise and equivocal terms, it does appear that lawyers choose their words more carefully than non-lawyers, including the selection of vague or ambiguous terms which serve a useful function by virtue of their lack of precision.—Lewis (1972), p. 316
