Multilingual Legal Glossary

Vancouver Community College’s Certificate Program in Court Interpreting has come up with a searchable online multilingual glossary of some 7000 terms in the areas of “criminal law, court-related terms [and] street language heard in court for drugs and arms.” The terms are available in English, Chinese, Farsi, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. The project was funded by the Law Foundation of British Columbia and the Notary Foundation.

This glossary is no mean feat, given the need for accuracy and the challenging fact that five of the languages use non-Roman scripts.

[The list] was created by a certified terminologist and a certified court interpreter. Subsequently, two judges reviewed this list and selected the 5000 terms they considered most pertinent…

How were the entries prepared?
First, simple definitions in English Plain Language, understandable for lay persons, were created by lawyers and reviewed by legal Plain Language specialists.

Then, equivalents of the entry terms were found or created in each of the six foreign languages by certified translators and lawyers.

How was the quality of the work ensured?
Each entry has been reviewed by peer terminologists.

The entries for each language have undergone final review and approval by bilingual lawyers and legal translators with experience both in Canada and in the country where that language is spoken.

The entire project was overseen by a Steering Committee representative of the legal and multicultural community.