engleski

Terminological Challenges of Translating EU Competition Law

While it is true that legal language strives for precision, legal concepts which express legal norms are often vague, indeterminate or lack precise definitions. The reason for this seeming paradox is that legal concepts need to be applied to different real-life situations in order to keep up with the changing social circumstances. This contribution looks into the consequences of this inherent vagueness of legal concepts for the work of legal practitioners by posing the following question: How do courts and judges cope with vague concepts of EU law? Departing from this, the contribution investigates vague concepts in the field of EU competition law with a view to not only enhance understanding and interpretation of such concepts, but also facilitate their translation. Underlining the importance of an interdisciplinary approach, vague concepts of EU competition law are studied from the dual perspective of terminology and legal interpretation. On the one hand, applying terminology as the linguistic discipline which studies terms, concepts and the conceptual structure of a domain, can further understanding of EU competition law concepts. Iin general, raising awareness on the importance of terminology for the work of legal practitioners contributes to more precise legal communication and application of law, especially in the multilingual EU context. On the other hand, examining how the Court of Justice of the EU grapples with the meaning of vague concepts of EU competition law in its settled case law, provides valuable assistance for translating EU competition law (Bajčić 2017). With this in mind, special attention is devoted to the role of conceptual autonomy in promoting uniform application of EU law in 24 official languages (cf. Šarčević 2013 ; Graziadei 2015).

EU competition law, Terminology, vagueness, concepts

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