As lawyer–linguists and seasoned legal translators we support fellow colleagues with the translation of legal terms in cases in which dictionaries and the internet do not help (see the details here), motto …
… whereas in our capacity as legal language expert and legal translation specialist, in addition to the aforementioned collegiality assistance that we offer on a not-for-profit basis, we provide on a commercial basis:
in particular, English contract translations, Dutch contract translations and German contract translations, moreover English-language, Dutch-language and German-language General Terms and Conditions, by experienced specialist translators in the field of contract law, rather, the law of obligations, and commercial law.
Furthermore, we are a supplier of linguistic professional support in the field of interstate (public) law, especially in the translation of a data protection declaration in the course of the GDPR.
by experienced lawyer-linguists in the capacity as a specialist in the translation of legal texts of any kinds, expert in legal terminology in general and authority in multilingualism in law in particular.
What exactly is this all about?
It is about reviewing a legal translation on a high end level.
And, in doing so, investigating (examining) for:
(a) inconsistencies to clarify and correct,
(b) contradictions to recognize and eliminate,
(c) common misconceptions to identify and rectify,
(d) common errors to discover and resolve,
(e) obvious deficiencies to spot and obliterate,
(f) hidden omissions to find and supplement,
(g) possible misunderstandings to uncover and clear up,
(h) unspecified wording to reveal as such and avoid,
in order to ensure, rather guarantee the authenticity and integrity of a legal translation.
in general, that is, the partially or fully automated translation of specialized legal texts.
And, what exactly is that all about?
The role of an authority in the field of automated legal translation is threefold.
That is, look through the eye – and thus combine the role – of:
(a) a common linguist,
(b) a specialist linguistic reviewer (in the capacity of a technical editor with basic understanding of computational linguistics and, most important,
(c) an expert in the legal system of the source language and of the target language (in the capacity of a legal editor),
What does this mean?
In the course of a sound and sophisticated post–editing, as described further below, one has to, rather needs to skilfully cover up and compensate shortcomings and correct errors in machine-translated sentences in order to ensure coherence and consistency in translation.
Such a review shall take place on the basis of considerable familiarity with regard to the automated translation process, implementing certain state-of-the-art quality metrics, specifications and requirements.
And, what does this imply?
Familiarity with artificial intelligence in general and machine translation in particular
What exactly does such familiarity refer to?
Basically, it refers to five different things or rather concepts to be familiar with:
(a) Natural Language Processing (NLP)
(b) Large Language Models (LLM) basic technology for, among others, OpenAI’s GPT-3 and 4 LLM, Google (Alphabet) LaMDA/Bard and Meta LLaMA,
(c) Neural Machine Translation (NMT) Deep Neural Networks as basic technology for, among others, DeepL, Tilde, European Union/e-translation and ModernMT.
And, of course, as a key concept inextricably linked to NLP, LLMs and NMT:
(d) Deep Learning (DL) in the context of Machine Learning (ML), and
(e) Reinforced Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) as a mean for direct interacting between artificial intelligence and, if you like, natural intelligence.
To illustrate this, that is to demonstrate basic knowledge of computational linguistics procedures in relation to legal translation, there are four steps to be taken:
.And further, what does this imply in detail?
Abstractly, it is about the procedures of the so called pre–editing machine translation and post–editing machine translation.
Concretely, it means the gradual development in becoming a specialist or expert in:
(a) reviewing and adapting legal texts for automatic translation into a foreign language (pre-editing for that matter, namely editing ex ante).
In other words: implementing natural intelligence as a prior step vis à vis the implementation of artificial intelligence. Such pre-editing of text is, needless to say, not always a necessity, but essentially so if the source text is lacking linguistic accuracy, because only linguistically consistent text can be automatically translated with maximum precision, or if the source text, while linguistically accurate, contains sentences which are awkward or incomprehensible, because only linguistically coherent text can be automatically translated with maximum precision!
(b) correcting, which means technically and materially editing automatically translated foreign-language legal texts (post-editing for that matter, namely editing ex post) on the basis of and in accordance with the parameters, as set out further above in the legal proofreading and legal editing – review and revision section.
In other words: implementing natural intelligence as a follow-up step vis à vis the implementation of artificial intelligence.
How could all this be brought together in thought and in word?
Artificial intelligence searches for the right wording, natural intelligence searches for the right words!
