Translation

The copy made in one language of what has been written, or spoken in another.

In pleading, when a libel or an agreement, written in a foreign language, must be averred, it is necessary that a translation of it should also be given.

In evidence, when a witness is unable to speak the English language so as to convey his ideas, a translation of his testimony must be made. In that case, an interpreter should be sworn to translate to him, on oath, the questions propounded to him, and to translate to the court and jury his answers.

It has been determined that a copyright may exist in a translation, as a literary work.

In the ecclesiastical law, translation denotes the removal from one place to another; as, the bishop was translated from the diocese of A, to that of B. In the civil law, translation signifies the transfer of property.

Swinburne applies the term translation to the bestowing of a legacy which had been given to one, on another; this is a species of ademption, but it differs from it in this, that there may be an ademption without a translation, but there can be no translation without an ademption.

By translation is also meant the transfer of property, but in this sense it is seldom used.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.