Why Has Germany Rejected ISO 20771 for Legal Translation?

As times begin to change and specialisms become more important in a wide range of sectors, it is the changing of industry standards for the translation of law that is presenting difficulty in the industry at this time. But will ongoing disputes between the implementation of the approved ISO 20771 legislation be negative for the industry at this time?

We look at the rejection of this legislation within Germany as well as addressing the concerns that this can bring to the industry as we move forward.

The Changing Standard For Legal Translation

Over the years, there have been many standards for translating law and other documents that have had to be adhered to. But with the recent changes to the legislation surrounding legal translation, it brings to question the reasoning behind the implementation of ISO 20771 and why Germany has come to reject it. This new change to legislation has affected legal translators, revisers and reviewers as well as best practices when translating law. However, with the main focus of this new legislation affecting individual translators that translate legal terms, this is a huge change to the industry around the world.

Distorting The Level Playing Field

With the current ISO 17100 in place translating law, this creates a level playing field for freelancers as well as translation businesses. This has therefore been rejected by the DIN Standards Committee in a statement saying:  

“There is no objective reason whatsoever to define different requirements for translation services — regardless of the specialist field — for different types of translation service providers.”

This a point of view that has been echoed by 36 of the countries involved in this legislation as there was said to be “considerable unresolved differences” between them. This has therefore led to Germany rejecting this new industry standard for multilingual translation when working to translate legal terms in the country.

A Complete Disconnect with Previous Industry Standard

Confusing amongst customers is yet another reason why Germany and many other countries are hesitant when it comes to adopting the latest industry standard. With many stating that there is a complete disconnect between the existing and newly implemented industry standard. This, however, has also led to the industries focus on specialist translation when firms translate legal terms. However, many begin to question just how effective this will be.

Differences in Certifications

The final argument is the certifications that could surround specialist translation within the industry. For those seeking to adhere to this specialist standard, certifications may need to be obtained to reach the level required to translate legal terms to this standard. This, therefore, poses a threat to the industry as more cost and work is put into training several people within a translation service to meet this standard. This is one of the main concerns associated with this new legislation and has led to Germany rejecting the new measures in favour of the previous standard for translating law in the country. How the rest of the world falls in line will be watched with interest amongst legal experts and translation service providers alike.

With certified legal translation services that cover accurate translation of specialist terminology, contracts, notarised documents and much more, at Talking Heads we have the services in place to assist you in comprehensive legal translation. Please contact us today to find out more and request a quote.