Translation and certification of documents in due process, with particular reference to questioned and electronic documents

Abstract

Aim: The study aims to provide guidance on how to avoid that forged evidence sneaks in Hungarian-language proceedings with foreign-language documents, even in the absence of relevant and detailed legislative provisions.
Methodology: The fundamental problem is to consider which is serving better the certainty of judgment: translating a document of concern for the purpose of evidence in court, while indicating the fact that it is of concern, or refusing a request for a certified translation. The author has analysed the following sources: general principles and ethical guidelines for translators; rules of procedural law and legal literature on documentary evidence; case-law of the Curia of Hungary on the issue of certainty of judgment; instruments in force governing the activities of the Hungarian Office for Translation and Attestation Ltd. (OFFI or State Translation Agency) as well as previously repealed instruments on documents of concern; OFFI’s internal rules and regulations in force on handling documents of concern and translation certification.
Findings: By virtue of the general legal principle of law, certified translations enjoy public confidence. As regards the certification of documents of concern, legislation on technical (aka specialised) translation and certified translation is incomplete. Only certified translations on paper or electronic documents with an unquestionable authenticity in the translation process, can be used for documentary evidence. Inappropriate use of terminology, ambiguous wording not specific to the source language, or translation of documents that are of concern for any other reason may lead to an unlawful or incorrect linguistic transmission of the content. As a language intermediary certification body, OFFI is responsible for the certification of document translations and its internal rules provide guidance on how to handle doubtful situations in a transparent manner.
Value: Nowadays, social mobility goes hand in hand with an increase in the cross-border circulation of documents. At the same time, the increasing number of documents awaiting translation and appearing to be of concern may require to re-design the legislation applicable to those documents. In the appendix of the paper, the author departing from the OFFI’s existing system of concepts, provides a definition to a possible regulatory solution, while leaving it to the legislator to decide whether a document of concern should be translated, and then its certified translation should bear the translator’s remark on the concern about its content, or its certified translation should be refused anyway.