ИСТИНА

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF LEGAL TRANSLATION PRACTICE: MASTER’S PROGRAM CONTEXT ESP and ESL acquisition process relies on constant translation of meanings from a foreign language into native and the other way round, in case of ESP it also implies translating from technical into plain language, i.e both ESP instructors and learners engage in the process of meaning negotiation. The process may pose various implicit and explicit challenges at the micro level (phrase, sentence) and the macro level (paragraph, text). On the one hand, students grapple with polysemy which is natural even for such a conventional area as law (examples: relief; benefit; interest etc.). On the other hand, terms may be domain-specific (e.g. ‘municipal law’ in the context of International Economic Law; ‘tax arbitrage’ in the context of International Tax Law). Other terms become accessible only against the background of their opposites (acta iure imperii vs. acta iure gestionis). These and many other ‘meaning negotiation’ techniques usually precede the process of translation. As they say ‘once meaning is established, comprehension follows’, yet comprehension per se does not suffice when it comes to translation. Developing translation skills should leave room for questions and for improvement. Since exercise in translation is an opportunity to articulate one’s results to the audience, to test it and to verify it, translation practice will have a dialogical form. Open discussion format is particularly useful when it comes to the translation of oblique phrases and domain-specific terms. Numerous examples can be found in academic texts on international economic law and international tax law. Oblique phrases like ‘conflict of laws’, ‘regulatory competition’, ‘economic allegiance’ or ‘nexus’ could be described as falsely-transparent for translation which gives rise to lengthy discussions. Domain-specific terms can be much less transparent, their translation would require additional research and some degree of creativity on the part of a student (e.g. thin capitalization rule; dry tax charge; permanent establishment etc.). From the linguistic perspective exercise in translation can be an enriching exploration of language potential - semantic, stylistic variation, pragmatic meaning etc. - especially if students are exposed to various genres. From the point of legal profession translation exercises can be seen as a filter of professional usage. Since by invoking and their knowledge of law and business communication, when discussing legal translation in class, students may shed light on current usage of law terms in business context and their Russian equivalents. To sum up, translation practice can and should be one of the forms of cooperation between language specialists and law specialists. This report is an attempt to provide an illustration to this idea.