Translation problems specific to documents in ICTY trials

Alice Copple-Tosic, Borislava Sasic, Ana Stefanovski, Conference and Language Services Section ICTY

The International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is one of several ad hoc courts that use what is called a hybrid legal system consisting of concepts from both customary and continental law. One of the consequences of this system is that the written case files are much larger and include a wide variety of texts, ranging from witness statements, newspaper articles, combat reports, autopsies, expert reports to all manner of laws and judgements. This paper will present an overview of the types of texts needed in the courtroom so that the judges, who dominate the trials, may be properly informed of all the relevant facts. Each type of document will be analysed from the viewpoint of the translation problems involved.