The translation of affirmative action into legal discourse in Brazil
-
Celina Frade
Abstract
Several studies have recently discussed legal translation beyond the transfer of equivalent linguistic and terminological features from a source language to a target language. Such perspectives can provide linguistics, translators and legislators with a framework for translating outside events of social life, including its demands, knowledge, wishes and cultural developments throughout periods of time into legal discourse. In this paper, we aim to discuss a broader approach of legal translation to depict how public policies on affirmative action have been introduced in Brazil in the light of institutionalization and further instrumentalization by law. In particular, we make an attempt to show how domestic legislation is translated and enacted considering both the context (as the source ‘language’) and legal discourse (as the target language). Our claim is that the process entails a transformation or translation of context (common sense achieved by society) into legal discourse (law) by means of categorization of everyday concepts into legal concepts to meet both the socioeconomic and historical contexts at hand and the framework of written law. The analysis is based on the Rio de Janeiro state law 5346/2008, a landmark law ruling affirmative action in Brazil insofar as it expands the categories of beneficiaries – the so-called quotistas – taking into consideration the social, political and economic context then. In addition, we argue that the criterion of categorization is not arbitrary but is rather cultural, economic and historically driven and objectivates the human production of a role identity of the beneficiaries beyond subjective intentions. To conclude, this analysis was only made possible with the contribution of more comprehensive viewpoints on legal translation and the role played by social perceptions in the translatability of domestic legislation in monolingual jurisdictions.
Law n.5246, 11 December 2008, Rio de Janeiro
Article 1:
1st Art. It is hereby constituted for 10 years, the quota system for admissions at state universities to assure selection and final classification in pre-entrance exams [vestibular] to the following needy students:
| I | Blacks; |
| II | Brazilian natives; |
| III | Public school students |
| IV | Disabled people, in terms of law in force |
| V | Children of civil and military police officers, military firefighters and security and penitentiary agents, either deceased or unfit due to service rendered |
| §1st | ‘Needy student’ means the one so defined by the state public university, considering his/her socioeconomic and disciplinary level as proof of this condition, according to socioeconomic data by official public bodies. |
| §2nd | ‘Public school student’ means the one who has fully attended all the series of the second level of fundamental education at public schools in all national territory. |
Article 2:
2nd Art The percentage of quotas for admissions at state universities will be, respectively:
| I | 20% (twenty percent) for Blacks and Brazilian Natives; |
| II | 20% (twenty percent) public school students; |
| III | 5% (five percent) for disabled people and children of civil and military police officers, military firefighters and security and penitentiary agents, either deceased or unfit due to service rendered. |
References
Bhabha, Homi K. 2006 [1995]. Cultural diversity and cultural differences. In Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths & Hellen Tiffin (eds.), The post-colonial studies reader, 2nd edn., 155–159. Oxford: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi, K. 2008. Preface. In the cave of making. Thoughts on third space. In Karin Iskas & Gerard Wagner (eds.), Communicating in the third space (Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies Book 180), ix–xiv. Oxford: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Bhatia, Vijay K. 2004. Worlds of written discourse. New York: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar
Berger, Peter. L. & Thomas Luckmann. 1967. The social construction of reality. A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. New York: Anchor Books.Search in Google Scholar
Black, Donald. 1979. Common sense in the sociology of law. American Sociological Review 44(1). 18–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/2094814.Search in Google Scholar
Burke, Peter J. & Jan E. Stets 2009. Identity theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195388275.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Cao, Deborah. 2007. Translating law. Cleveland: Multilingual Matters Ltd.10.21832/9781853599552Search in Google Scholar
Daflon, Verônica Toste, Feres Junior João & Luiz Augusto Campos. 2013. Ações afirmativas raciais no ensino público brasileiro: Um panorama analítico. Cadernos de Pesquisa 43(148). 302–327. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0100-15742013000100015.Search in Google Scholar
Engberg, Jan. 2020. Comparative law for legal translation: Through multiple perspectives to multidimensional knowledge. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law 33(2). 263–282. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-020-09706-9.Search in Google Scholar
Frade, Celina. 2014. Translating domestic legislation: A comparative analysis. In Le Cheng, King Sui Sin & Anne Wagner (eds.), The Ashgate handbook of legal translation, 209–222. Dorchester: Ashgate.Search in Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford. 1975. Common sense as a cultural system. Antioch Review 33(1). 5–26. https://doi.org/10.2307/4637616.Search in Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Anchor Books.Search in Google Scholar
Holmes, Oliver WendellJr. 1991 [1881]. The common law. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.Search in Google Scholar
Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, fire, and dangerous things. What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226471013.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Luhmann, Niklas. 1983. Sociologia do direito I [A sociological theory of law I]. Rio de Janeiro: Tempo Brasileiro.Search in Google Scholar
Rosch, Eleanor. 1973. Natural categories. Cognitive Psychology 4. 328–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(73)90017-0.Search in Google Scholar
Sager, Juan C. 1990. A practical course in terminology processing. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/z.44Search in Google Scholar
Taylor, John R. 1989. Linguistic categorization: Prototypes in linguistic theory. Oxford: Claredon Paperbacks.Search in Google Scholar
Telles, Edward. E. 2004. Race in another America: The significance of skin color in Brazil. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400837434Search in Google Scholar
Telles, Edward E. & Marcelo Paixão. 2013. Affirmative action in Brazil. LasaForum XLIV(2).10–12.Search in Google Scholar
The Economist. 2013. Affirmative action in Brazil. Slavery’s legacy. Americas view. The Americas. Issue April 26. https://www.economist.com/americas-view/2013/04/26/slaverys-legacy (accessed 23 August 2020).Search in Google Scholar
Wagner, Anne. 2016. A space in-between. Legal translation as a ‘third space’. Journal of Civil Law Studies. 9. 168–188.Search in Google Scholar
Wagner, Anne, King Kui Sin & Cheng Le. 2014. Cultural transfer and conceptualization in legal discourse. In Le Cheng, King Kui Sin & Anne Wagner (eds.), The Ashgate handbook of legal translation, 27–42. Dorchester: Ashgate.Search in Google Scholar
2001Webster’s unabridged dictionary, 2nd edn. New York: Random House.Search in Google Scholar
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Instrumentalization of law as a socially constituted sign-system
- Research Articles
- Theory of Law, Jurilinguistics and Legal Language: A common task
- Border troubles. Some uncertainties of legal transfer
- Otherness, elsewhere, and the 'Ecology' of law's implications: The semiotic oceans surrounding legal signification and its discriminatory exteriority/objectivity
- Law as a culturally constituted sign-system – A space for interpretation
- Linguistic norm in legal language and legislative language – The issue of codification
- Cultural, textual and linguistic aspects of legal translation: A model of text analysis for training legal translators
- The model of Mary between Islam and Catholicism: The figurativization of normative principles in the intercultural exchange
- The semiotic puzzle: Authentic languages & international law
- The translation of affirmative action into legal discourse in Brazil
- Exploring cyberbullying: a socio-semiotic perspective
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Instrumentalization of law as a socially constituted sign-system
- Research Articles
- Theory of Law, Jurilinguistics and Legal Language: A common task
- Border troubles. Some uncertainties of legal transfer
- Otherness, elsewhere, and the 'Ecology' of law's implications: The semiotic oceans surrounding legal signification and its discriminatory exteriority/objectivity
- Law as a culturally constituted sign-system – A space for interpretation
- Linguistic norm in legal language and legislative language – The issue of codification
- Cultural, textual and linguistic aspects of legal translation: A model of text analysis for training legal translators
- The model of Mary between Islam and Catholicism: The figurativization of normative principles in the intercultural exchange
- The semiotic puzzle: Authentic languages & international law
- The translation of affirmative action into legal discourse in Brazil
- Exploring cyberbullying: a socio-semiotic perspective
