A Parameter-based Method for Translating Polish Contract Law Terms into Spanish

The paper deals with problems of legal translation from Polish into Spanish. It analyses selected terms related to contracts which are regulated in the Polish Civil Code and their possible translations into Spanish. In order to find adequate translation equivalents the author applies the method of parametrisation of legal terms (along with the method of comparing parallel texts and the skopos theory). The parametrisation of legal terms helps to systematically characterise and compare them and thus to identify differences in the meanings of the source language and target language terms and to choose the best equivalents. It may also facilitate the selection of a technique of providing translation equivalents for non-equivalent or partially equivalent terms. Parametrisation is understood as determining for each analysed term a set of properties it shows with respect to translationally relevant parameters – one property out of each parameter. A parameter is conceived of as a set of homogeneous properties.