One of the main traits of legal language is that it combines a highly specialized, often archaic, terminology with commonplace words that acquire very specific technical meanings. In the case of English, moreover, we are dealing with a language that is, in the words of Robert Graves, ‘a vernacular of the vernacular’: a language whose vocabulary – including legal terminology – is a mixture of Germanic and Latin, reflecting its Anglo-Saxon and Norman French origins. This means that many English terms derived from French have cognates – words with the same linguistic derivation – in the Romance languages: e.g. the English fig and the French figue, Spanish higo, Portuguese figo, and Italian fico. 

Because a significant part of English legal terminology has medieval French roots, it is not unusual to find terms that formally mirror their cognates in Romance languages, yet whose meanings are different: what are commonly known as “false friends.” The influence of English as the dominant global language often means that such outwardly similar words are inappropriately equated. Furthermore, most Romance-language jurisdictions follow the civil law system – ultimately rooted in Roman law – as opposed to the common law system found in most English-speaking countries. For these reasons, the potential mistranslation of such deceptive cognates can significantly distort the meaning of the documents in which they appear. 

Here are four examples of very basic legal terms that are false friends in English and the main Romance languages:

• Sentence vs Sentencia / Sentence / Sentença / Sentenza

The Spanish sentencia, the French sentence, the Portuguese sentença, and the Italian sentenza all refer to a judgment or decision in legal proceedings. However, the meaning of the English sentence is more restricted, specifically denoting the punishment handed down by a judge in a criminal case.

• Crime vs Crimen / Crime / Crimine

The English crime is not the Spanish crimen, French crime, the Portuguese crime, or the Italian crimine. While, in English, crime covers any act that is illegal and is punishable by law, its cognates in the Romance languages all have a narrower meaning: specifically, the most serious category of offenses, often equivalent to felonies in English-speaking jurisdictions. Thus the Spanish crimen stands opposed to the less serious delito; likewise for the French crime and délit, the Portuguese crime and delito, and the Italian crimine and delitto.

Delito /délit / delitto can often be translated as misdemeanor, but not always, as the overlap between the two categories is not complete, with the former being broader in scope than the latter. While crimen / crime / crimine is the most serious category of offense in Romance-language jurisdictions, the delito / délit / delitto category encompasses both serious and minor offenses that are not a crimen / crime / crimine: indeed, the English misdemeanor is sometimes translated into Spanish as delito menor, specifically indicating its minor nature as opposed to the more serious delitos. Examples of misdemeanors in English might include shoplifting and simple abuse; the delito / délit / delitto category would include these too, but also more serious offenses such as homicide and drug trafficking.

• Jurisprudence vs Jurisprudencia / Jurisprudence / Jurisprudência / Giurisprudenza

In the Romance languages, jurisprudencia / jurisprudence / jurisprudência / giurisprudenza refers to case law or legal precedents. By contrast, the English jurisprudence, while applicable in this context, refers primarily to the theory or philosophy of law, or even to a body of law, which means that the reader must be particularly vigilant as to the true meaning of the text.

• Demand vs Demandar / Demander / Demandare-Domandare

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the verb to demand has the meanings: “ask authoritatively or brusquely; insist on having; require; need.” Its noun form, demand, means “an insistent and peremptory request, made as of right.” However, certain cognate forms of both the verb and the noun in the various Romance languages have different meanings, particularly in legal contexts. 

• The Spanish and Portuguese verb demandar has the same generic meaning as the English verb, but also the specialized legal meaning “to file a claim”: indeed, in a legal context, a demanda is a claim or lawsuit, not a demand.
• Demander in French means simply “to ask” or “to request.” In certain contexts, however, a French demande is an application – e.g. a demande de naturalisation is an application for naturalization.
• Finally, in Italian there is an additional complication. Domandare (with an o) means “to ask a question, to find out.” And there is further potential for confusion in that demandare (with an e) means “to assign, to transfer”: in a legal context, demandare un giudizio a chi di dovere means “to transfer a case to the proper venue.” 

Avoiding the pitfalls of linguistic false friends is an essential principle of translation. This is especially so in the case of legal texts, where successful translation requires expert knowledge of the differences not only between concepts, but also of the respective legal systems that underlie them.