1. Features of legal English and Arabic translation
Introduction:-1
Translation is both art and science. It is the process ofrendering
the text from the sourcelanguage into the target language. Legal
translation is one of the many translation branches that deals with texts
used in law and legal settings. Translation studies is an academic study
dealing with the systematic study of the theory, description and
application of translation. Within translation studies, a lot of literature has
tackled legal translation and its features. A Contrastive analysis is a very
useful approachto study the structural differences and similarities of two
or more languages. It has been used in translation studies as a method of
explaining how translators handle the peculiar features of the source
texts. This paper studies legal translation and the differences and
similarities of English and Arabic language through contrastive analysis
of international instruments.
:Translation as a means of communication-2
Many writers go with the idea that translation is a means of
communication between the source text and the target one while paying a
great attention to the differences among the two cultures if found.
Through his Translation ChangesEverything:Theory and Practice,
Lawrence Venuti exposes a piece of information from the bookof the
formalist theorist Gideon Toury (Toury, 1980) that translation is not
about converting information from the sourcelanguage to the target one,
but it is a process ofcommunication among different cultures to send a
specific message to the reader.(2013,p.12-13). At the same time Susan
Sarcevic through her book, LegalTranslation and Translation Theory
argued that translation is considered as a process ofcommunication
between the source text and the target text. The translator delivers the
exact information to the target one. (2000, p.4).

2. Features of legal English and Arabic translation
Legal translation and its difficulties:-3
Legal translation is one of the many translation
branches that deals with texts used in law and legal settings. Many
writers go with the idea that legal translation is a special branch
that has its rules that distinguish it from the other branches. It is
also more difficult than any other branches because of the use of
specific words and rules. Through her book, Translating Law,
Deborah Cao argues that legal translation has a double face. It is
one of the branches of translation that is similar to general
translation becauseit deals with something that most people are
interested in. It is also similar to technical translation because it
uses ''special'' and fixed words that are related only to the law and
the legal language. (2007,p .73-74). Amit Sonawane proves the
idea that legal translation has many difficulties. This is very clear
through his book, Difficulties Faced in LegalDocument
Translation (n.d.).
Through his article," Problems in Legal Translation",
Ayman El Sebaey also asserts that legal translation is the most
difficult branch among translation branches and this goes backto
several reasons. On one hand, the choices of ''specific'' orfixed
words in legal language contribute to its complexity. On the other
hand, the common law and civil law systems do not go through the
same path. (2007).
As a result of having a difficult nature, there must be specific
requirements for the legal translator in order to go through the right path.
Sonawane shows that the qualification of the legal translator includes

3. Features of legal English and Arabic translation
three things or "areas": first, to be fully aware of "the legal systems of the
sourceand target languages", second, to have a great knowledge of the
target language and to be familiar with its terminology (n.d.). El-Sebaey
declares through his article, that "[Legal translation] is … one of the most
challenging fields of study, requiring the inventiveness of literary
translation with the terminological precision of technical translation."
Features of legal translation in English:-4
Lexical features:-A
There are many lexical features that distinguish English legal
translation through the legal documents such as capitalization, repetition
and the use of couplings and synonyms. Firstly, capitalization is used
through the legal documents to mark the beginning of the article or to
give a great attention to something effective through the text. An example
of this is" The Contractor shall be deemed to have inspected the Work
Site". Through the previous example, as Mahmoud Sabra states in
Translation of Contracts, there were certain words that were capitalized
"Contractor" and "Work Site". This is because those words represent the
important parties through the text. (1995, p.34).
Secondly, repetition is used through the legal documents in order
to avoid the use of pronouns. Through her book, Arabic-English-Arabic
LegalTranslation, Hanem El-Farahaty, shows the importance of using
repetition in order to avoid the use of pronouns that may have
"ambiguous reference". (2015, p. 56). Similar to El-Farahaty, Mahmoud
Sabra through his book, Translation of Contracts, declares that using
repeated words is more appropriate than using their pronouns. For
example, The Lessee shall pay to the Lessorat the office of the Lessor. It
has noted that the word Lessoris repeated through the previous example
in order to avoid any ambiguous reference. (1995, p. 41).

4. Features of legal English and Arabic translation
The third feature is the use of couplings and synonyms. This goes
back to a reason that was mentioned by Sabra. In the past, there were two
terms for the same word one is English and the other is French. As a
result of the doubts that emerged because of that, it has been decided to
use bothwords. For example, made and signed, terms and conditions, by
and between. (1995, p. 35).
Syntactic features:-B
There are many syntactic features that distinguish English legal
translation through the legal documents such as provisionary main
clauses, conditional clauses/ phrases and obligation forms. Firstly, the
structure of provisionary main clauses represents a common feature in
legal English. Sabra declares that the provisionary clauses are divided
into two parts; "Legal Subject" and "Legal Action". On one hand, the
"Legal Subject" has to do with the personhimself either to have his right
or to abide by certain obligations. On the other hand, the "Legal Action"
that has to do with the rights and obligations themselves. An example of
this is" The Contractor shall bear all costs of…" (1995, p 50-51).
The second feature is the conditional clauses/phrases. They are
concerned with the cases that should be achieved in order to achieve the
judicial ruling. This can be expressed through many ways such as if,
provided that, subject to and unless. Sabra clarifies this idea through his
book, Bases of LegalDrafting. For instance, if the appellant complies
with section 24, the Court shall order the respondentto pay into court an
amount of money equivalent to the sum of money claimed by the
appellant. (2001, p. 110).
Thirdly, the obligation forms reflect crucial features in legal
English translation. The most common of them is the use of shall. As
Sabra mentions through his book, Basesof LegalDrafting ''shall'' is
widely used in legal documents. It is used essentially, as an obligation

5. Features of legal English and Arabic translation
form, to indicate that the subject has to do or abide by something. Sabra
cites Bryan A. Garner who states in his book, A Dictionary of Modern
LegalUsage that "shall" has many other usages. (N.d. p. 940). For
instance, the debtorshall be brought forthwith before the court that issued
the order. The previous example clarifies a great idea which is that "shall"
imposes an order but not to the debtorbut to a subject that was not
mentioned through the text. (2001, p. 187-188-189).
Features of legal translation in Arabic:-5
:Lexical features-A
Similar to English legal language, Arabic legal language has its
own lexical features that distinguish it from any other language. Such as
formality and the use of archaic terms. Through her book, English-
Arabic-English, El-Farahaty shows that the feature of formality is"
widely" used in the Arabic legal language more than the English legal
language. In her words El-farahaty notes that "In Arabic, formality is
done through forms of address or honorary titles due to the diverse social
and political backgrounds in different Arab countries". For instance, "His
Excellency the president" is translated into Arabic as " ‫رئيس‬ ‫الفخامة‬ ‫صاحب‬
‫ا‬‫لجمهورية‬ ".
Secondly is the use of archaic terms through the legal documents.
El-Farahaty cites Mona Baker's definition of archaic terms as '' the frozen
patterns of language ''(as cited in El-Farahaty,2015,p.) . Unlike English
Legal language, the Arabic legal one uses ''fewer archaic terms ''. This is
because the Arabic legal language has its "fluidity". For instance,
"aforementioned" is translated into Arabic as "‫الذكر‬ ‫."السالف‬ (El-Farahaty,
2015, p.66).
B- Syntactic features:

6. Features of legal English and Arabic translation
Similar to the English Legal language, the Arabic legal language
has its own syntactic features that distinguish it from any other language.
As El-Farahaty categorizes them through her book, Arabic legal language
features as nominalization, modals, doublets and triplets and participles.
Firstly is the use of nominalization. This means to change the word class
from, for instance a verb into a noun. This is clear through El-Farahaty's
example through her book, "The national economy aims at achieving
comprehensive development". The word "achieving" which is a verb was
translated into Arabic as a noun "‫."تحقيق‬ (2015, p. 67).
Secondly is the use of modals. El- Farahaty declares through her
bookthat the Arabic legal language "does not have well-defined set of
modal auxiliaries". As the example El-Farahaty cites in her book, "the
notification shall be given" was translated into"‫االخطار‬ ‫يتم‬ ‫أن‬ ‫."يجب‬
(2015,p.68). Thirdly is the use of doublets and triplets. Through her book,
El-Farahaty asserts that the Arabic language has more than two words
with the same meaning that do the same work. They are "conjoined by
the use of ‫أو‬ / ‫."و‬ For instance, "any prior notice" was translated into
Arabic as "‫إنذار‬ ‫أو‬ ‫."تنبيه‬ (2015, p.69).
Fourthly is the use of participles. As El-Farahaty shows through her
bookthat "the passive participle" and "the absolute object" are'' other
grammatical features'' used in the Arabic language. The example
presented by El-Farahaty through her bookclarifies that idea very well.
The words "protector" and ''guarantor'' were translated into '' ‫الحامي‬
‫.''والضامن‬ This means as El-Farahaty clarifies that the'' present participles''
in Arabic are translated into'' nouns'' in English. (2015, p.70).
C-Textual features:
There are many textual features that distinguish the Arabic language
from any other one. El-Farahaty mentions them through her book,
English-Arabic-English Legal Language. They are lexical repetition,

7. Features of legal English and Arabic translation
reference, the use of conjunctions and punctuation. Firstly is the lexical
repetition or "semantic redundancy" as El-Farahaty cites from (shunnaq,
1994, p.103-104) and (shunnaq, 2000, p.209). As El-Farahaty notes,
lexical repetition has the role of organizing through the text. This can be
for the sake of avoiding any misunderstanding through the text. The
example that El-Farahaty cites shows repetition of the word immigration
that was translated into Arabic as " ‫ال‬‫هجرة‬ " and it was repeated for several
times.(2015,p 72).
Secondly is the use of reference. El-Farahaty exposes Baker's
opinion about the importance of using the reference in the Arabic
language. Baker (1992, p. 189) thinks that reference "establishes cohesive
link through the text". For instance, the pronoun"his" in "In his speech"
was referred in Arabic with the use of "‫"ه‬ in "‫حديثه‬ ‫."في‬ (2015, p.76).
Thirdly is the use of conjunctions and punctuation. Through her
book, El-Farahaty shows that the Arabic language has no "well-defined
rules for the usage of punctuation''. El-Farahaty mentioned that
"punctuation marks" were brought to" the Arabic language by the
Egyptian scholar Ahmed Zaki in the early twentieth century". El-Farahaty
states that she went through the "published documents" of "Hatim,
Shunnaq and Buckley (1995) and in Mansoor (1956a) ". (2015, p. 78).
Moving to a very important point which is the kinds of texts that
deal with that kind of features of the legal language in both English and
Arabic language. There are two types of texts that deal with the
abovementioned features either lexical or syntactic. They are the
resolution forms and the constitutional texts. As for the resolution forms,
they are divided into two important parts UN and SC Resolutions, and
UN and International Treaties. On the other hand, the Constitutional texts

8. Features of legal English and Arabic translation
are divided into two important parts; the constitutions of states and
international organizations and the second part which is the statements.
The following section presents an analysis of the Resolution 1973(2011)
adopted by the Security Council and The Arms Trade Treaty.
6- Conclusion:
In conclusion, this paper studies legal translation and the
differences and similarities of English and Arabic language through
contrastive analysis of international instruments. This is clear through the
opinions of the abovementioned writers through their great books.