Family Law Glossary Standardizing Common Law Terms in French

The Department of Justice’s Terminology Standardization Directorate has published the latest in the National Program for the Integration of Both Official Languages in the Administration of Justice (POLAJ) glossaries. The “Family Law Glossary (Common Law) Fascicle 3” [PDF] replaces the two earlier glossaries (Fascicles 1 & 2) respecting family law. (Gotta love that word “fascicle.”).

The idea is to assist those working in an area to make effective use of the fact that at many levels Canada has a bijural and bilingual legal system. Terms used in one system may not easily (or at all) correspond to terms used in the other system; yet it is often necessary to refer to a concept, term or practice based in one system in the language in which the other system is based. Standardization aims to achieve the sort of clarity that regularity can provide.

Thus, for example, the welter of terms used in English in the common law system to refer to permanent marriage break down, some of which include “irreparable breakdown of marriage; irreparable marriage breakdown; irreparable marital breakdown; irretrievable breakdown in the marital relationship; irretrievable breakdown in the marriage; irretrievable breakdown of the marital relationship; irretrievable breakdown of marriage; irretrievable marriage breakdown; irretrievable marital breakdown” and so on, are all to be translated into French as “échec irrémédiable du mariage.”

The Translation Bureau of the Terminology Standardization Directorate has published 19 such glossaries and guides relating to various areas of law.