Abstract
Do you need a law degree to produce a reliable translation?
Legal translation is one of the utmost challenges translators can encounter in their career, more so if the translation is between languages whose legal systems stem from different legal traditions, such as common law and civil law. Translators are thus confronted with asymmetry of legal systems and legal languages with a variable degree of conceptual equivalence between the two languages. Yet, they need to clearly, unambiguously and accurately translate the source text, using appropriate terminology, so that recipients of the target text get the same understanding of it as addressees of the source text. With a few practical examples, this paper will look at the importance of a comparative conceptual analysis, as well as of a basic awareness of the legal systems, when translating legal texts between Czech and English.