Methods Used in the Turkish Translation of Legal Terminology in the Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract

ALTUN ORHAN, Ebru. Methods Used in the Turkish Translation of Legal Terminology in the Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, Master’s Thesis, Ankara, 2017. This study aims to conduct a comparative analysis to determine which translation methods are adopted in translating the legal terminology of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The Court, which is based upon the European diversity and its commonalities, is the symbol of common spirit of human rights and a vision bringing together currently 47 countries. Considering that the judgments of the ECtHR are binding and final in international law, it is significant that those judgments must carry value and have authority in themselves and translations must be as accurate as the originals. In this respect, the scope of the study is limited to the judgments of the ECtHR related to Turkey released in the last five years, namely between 2012 and 2017. The judgments analysed in this study are selected from the Human Rights Documentation (HUDOC) database, which provides access to the case-law and the judgments of the Court. The purpose of this study is to examine which translation methods of Jean Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet (1995) are used in the Turkish translations of the legal terminology of the judgments of the ECtHR. Pursuant to this, in accordance with the findings of the analysis it is identified to what extent the judgments are translated in an adequate or acceptable way in the light of this approach of Gideon Toury (1995).