Linguistic Obstacles to the Effective Exchange of Legal Documentation

Extract

When the topic for this paper was first proposed to this author, the exact suggestion was “to write about the language problem as a barrier to publication of legal works in developing countries and their international distribution.” This author must hasten, then, to add that he makes no claim to being an expert in languages and linguistics; however, he does claim some familiarity with foreign languages and foreign law, does have strong interests in these areas, and therefore agreed to attempt such a paper. If he misuses exact linguistic terminology or commits some unwitting faux pas, he begs the reader's indulgence and hopes thereby to avoid igniting any language warfare or great intellectual brou-ha.