The power to translate and the law. European legal sources and interpretation of multilingual texts

When one reflects on the issue of law and translation, one is due to consider the European Union. The production of normative texts in Brussels is so huge that the translation work involved necessarily attracts our attention. The ECJ has affirmed the principle that in order to be binding a published text must be translated in one of the languages accessible to the recipient. This explains the importance of translation (no document can be drafted in all 24 official languages at the beginning). Power itself depends on translation. When considering mechanisms implemented to guarantee quality of legislation, we realize that most texts are initially drafted in English. Unfortunately not all drafters are native speakers of English. The English used in Brussels is heavily contaminated by other languages and sometimes difficult to understand by Anglophones themselves. The ECJ often compares several linguistic versions to establish the meaning meant by the legislator.