Xaрактеристика коридического дискурса и техника перевода терминов уголовного права с хорватского языка на русский
CHARACTERISTICS OF LEGAL DISCOURSE AND TECHNIQUES FOR TRANSLATING CRIMINAL LAW TERMS FROM CROATIAN INTO RUSSIAN

Summary/Abstract: The integration of linguistics and legal science, which began in Western Europe in the late 1960s (forensic linguistics) and in Russia in the early 21st century (jurislinguistics), has intensified significantly in recent years. This integration is largely driven by pragmatic needs. The migrant influx to Europe over the past decade has highlighted the importance of translating legal texts (both oral and written) and compiling bilingual legal dictionaries and glossaries. The translation issue becomes especially pressing when no specialised bilingual glossaries are available, as is the case with the Croatian–Russian language pair. This constitutes the relevance of the present study. The aim of the study is to examine the linguistic features (lexical, semantic, morphological, syntactical) of judicial discourse within the framework of functional style theory and to analyse translation techniques for lexical units of criminal law from Croatian into Russian. The applied value lies in offering Russian equivalents for Croatian legal terms and expressions used in criminal proceedings, which can be employed in the creation of a Croatian–Russian criminal law glossary. The research corpus is based on original Croatian court documents translated by the author into Russian from February to August 2024. The following methods were used: continuous sampling, linguistic analysis, contextual analysis, comparative, descriptive and transformational analysis, as well as observation and interpretation techniques. Legal professionals acknowledge the importance of broad linguistic knowledge and communication skills for their work. When representatives of different cultures are involved in a legal system, the role of the translator as a “mediator” in communication increases significantly. Translators must have a perfect command of both the source and target languages, as well as a solid understanding of the legal systems of both countries. Moreover, they must be able to select appropriate translation techniques to find equivalents for legal terms. Thus, legal translation, as J. E. Joseph put it, relies on theoretical foundations from three areas: language theory, legal theory and translation theory (Khizhnyak 2022, 23). Foreign scholars such as Jan Svartvik, D. Mellinkoff, N. P. Himmelmann, R. I. Walbaum, C. Goddard, M. Coulthard and R. W. Shuy were among the first to emphasise the need for combining linguistics and legal methods in criminal cases, laying the groundwork for forensic linguistics as a scientific field. Legal translation has deep historical roots. One example is the earliest documented peace treaty between Ancient Egypt and the Hittite Empire in 1259 BC, which existed in two versions – Hittite and Ancient Egyptian. The Roman Corpus Juris Civilis, which significantly influenced the development of European legal science, is also a prominent example of a translated legal text. In ancient Rus’, legal documents included treaties between Rus’ and Byzantium (907, 911, 944, 971), which regulated judicial procedures, punishments for crimes and trade relations (Glushachenko & Tsvetkov, 29). These treaties were written in both Greek and the language of the counterpart, requiring legal translation. The foundational document of Russian law is Russkaya Pravda, the oldest legal code from the eleventh century.

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