“五四”时期的法律外译及其意义

Legal Translation in China in the Period of the May Fourth Movement:History and Its Implications for Law and Translation Studies

"五四"时期的国家法律外译工程旨在将1902年晚清"变法修律"以降、特别是北洋政府时期的中国法律改革成果通过西方通用的英文和法文等语言展现,以更有效地向列强证明中国的法律制度在经过改良后已趋同于西方,从而敦促各国履行废除在华"治外法权"的承诺。本文意在梳理"五四"前法律外译情况,"五四"时期法律外译的动因以及这一时期主要法律翻译机构和代表性译者,重在说明"五四"时期的法律外译活动意在服务于国际国内政治需要,带有明显的反帝性质,明显有别于同时期的文学汉译活动。

Legal translation in the period of the May Fourth Movement was specially aimed to present both legislative and judicial achievements of legal reform in China since 1902, the reign of the Beiyang Government in particular, via the commonly used languages of the West ( English and French), so as to more effectively prove to the great powers that China had brought her legal system, which had been improved dramatically, into accord with that of western nations. The essence of this national translation mission was to urge all the concerned western nations to fulfill their treaty-commitment, in 1902, to relinquish their extraterritorial rights in China. This paper is to sort out the facts of legal translation from other types of translation in China around the May Fourth Movement, the purpose of the legal translation, and the main legal translation institutions and translators during this period of time. The legal translation activities around the period, being anti-imperialist in nature, were designed to meet the needs of both international and domestic politics, and significantly differs from the literary translation activities of the same period.