On the Translation Strategies of Citations in Common Law Cases

Abstract

Taking GRANITE ROCK CO. v. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS ET AL. as a research object, the present paper focuses on the translation of citations in the above mentioned case. Legal citation, a peculiar appearance in legal texts of common law system, is widely used in common law cases. Understanding the translation strategies and principles of legal citations is of great significance to retrieve law reports of common law system. In this paper, several types of citations are listed and their specific translation strategies in accordance with their structural features are illustrated with typical examples from the source text, and, then, translation principles of citations as well as some problems come across in translating citations are analyzed. Finally, by way of conclusion, the difficulties encountered and lessons learned in the translation process are summarized.