Authorised Translations of Electronic Documents

A concept is proposed to extend authorised translations of documents to electronically signed, digital documents. Central element of the solution is an electronic seal, embodied as an XML data structure, which attests to the correctness of the translation and the authorisation of the translator. The seal contains a digital signature binding together original and translated document, thus enabling forensic inspection and therefore legal security in the appropriation of the translation. Organisational aspects of possible implementation variants of electronic authorised translations are discussed and a realisation as a stand-alone web-service is presented.Comment: In: Peer-reviewed Proceedings of the Information Security South Africa (ISSA) 2006 From Insight to Foresight Conference, 5 to 7 July 2006, Sandton, South Afric

SWORN TRANSLATION OF CHINESE NOTARIAL CERTIFICATES

Tematem pracy jest tłumaczenie chińskich aktów i poświadczeń notarialnych z perspektywy tłumaczenia przysięgłego. Dla uściślenia kryteriów tłumaczenia, autorka zdecydowała się obrać jako punkt odniesienia zalecenia zawarte w Kodeksie Tłumacza Przysięgłego, wydanym przez Polskie Towarzystwo Tłumaczy Przysięgłych i Specjalistycznych, oraz warunki adekwatności zaproponowane przez Roberto Mayorala (2000, 9-11). Analiza chińskich aktów i poświadczeń notarialnych skupia się zasadniczo na formalnych wymogach tłumaczenia przysięgłego, odpowiedniości stylistycznej oraz zasadach transliteracji chińskich nazwisk i adresów.This article discusses the translation of Chinese notarial certificates from the perspective of sworn translation. Given the challenges of legal translation in general and sworn translation in particular, the issue in question calls for clearly established translation criteria. The author decided to adopt the recommendations included in The Sworn Translator’s Code, issued by The Polish Society of Sworn and Specialized Translators, and Adequacy Conditions proposed by Roberto Mayoral (2000, 9-11). The analysis of Chinese notarial certificates focuses on the formal requirements of sworn translation, stylistic adequacy and the transliteration rules for Chinese personal names and addresses

The Meaning of 'Free Access to Legal Information': A Twenty Year Evolution

Free online access to legal information is approaching maturity in some parts of the world, after two decades of development, but elsewhere is still in its early stages of development. Nowhere has it been realised fully.  The main question asked in this paper is “what should 'free access' mean in relation to legal information in order for it to be fully effective?” As with software, we must ask whether free access to law is ‘free as in beer, or free as in speech?’ The six most significant attempts over the last twenty years to answers this question are analysed to show that a substantial degree of international consensus has developed on what ‘free access to legal information’ now means. Of thirty separate identifiable principles, most are found in more than one statement of principles, and many are now relatively common in the practices of both States and providers of free access to legal information (government and NGO). Many concern measure to avoid the development of monopolies in publication of the core legal documents of a jurisdiction. Which principles are essential to the meaning of ‘free access to legal information’, and which are only desirable, is usually clear. Two complementary meanings of ‘free access to legal information’ emerge. The first states the obligations of the State in relation to ensuring free access to legal information – but not necessarily providing it. The key elements concern the right of republication. The second meaning states the conditions under which an organisation can correctly be said to be a provider of free access to legal information. We argue that a better definition is needed than the ‘consensus’ suggests, and propose one based on the avoidance of conflicts with maximisation of the quality and quantity of free access. One use of such a set of principles is to help evaluate the extent to which any particular jurisdiction has implemented free access to legal information. A brief example is given of Australia, a county with a generally good record but some deficiencies. Finally the paper considers what steps should be taken to most effectively realise a reformulated concept of ‘free access to legal information’, by civil society, by States at the national level, and at the international level

To Protect or Not to Protect: Finnish Translators’ Perceptions on Translator Status and Authorisation

   In most countries, there are no restrictions on who is allowed to work as a translator, apart from the context of legally valid or authorised translations. Nevertheless, the significance of authorisation for translator status has hardly been studied, apart from Dam/Zethsen (2009, 2010). This article investigates how authorisation affects Finnish translators’ status perceptions, and whether they believe that the profession should be protected further, and if so, how and why. The data come from a survey conducted in 2014 with 450 respondents (business, literary and audio-visual translators), based on Dam/Zethsen’s questionnaires and expanded and adapted for the Finnish context. The analysis is partly quantitative and statistical, partly a qualitative thematic analysis of the respondents’ open comments. Statistically, authorisation produced no significant differences in the respondents’ status perceptions. Similarly, in open questions on factors affecting translator status and measures that should be taken, few respondents mentioned authorisation or other professional boundaries. Nevertheless, when asked whether the profession should be protected, almost 60% of the respondents, particularly business translators who had attended translator training, advocated some form of protection, although they also emphasised that there should be flexibility to allow for translators with different backgrounds. The respondents were also more prone to call for protection if they held authorisation themselves, which may suggest that they feel authorisation does carry some value.&nbsp

Sentence Alignment as the Basis for Translation Memory Database

Sentence alignment represents the basis for computer-assisted translation (CAT), terminology management, term extraction, word alignment and crosslinguistic information retrieval. Created out of the sentence alignment process, translation memory (TM) represents the basis for further research in translation equivalencies. Automatic sentence alignment, based on parallel texts, faces two types of problems: robustness and discrepancies between source and target texts in layout and omissions which have an influence on the accuracy of the alignment process. The aim of the paper is to present research on the sentence alignment process carried out on the Croatian-English parallel texts (laws, regulations, acts and decisions) and implemented by the alignment tool WinAlign 7.5.0 by SDL Trados 2006 Professional. The alignment process and its impact on the creation of translation memories is presented through comparison of translation memories that differ regarding the levels of expert intervention in the set up of the alignment program and preparation of the source text for the segmentation. Recommendations for further development using statistical analysis, automatic learning techniques and language knowledge are suggested

Ensuring the security and privacy of information in mobile health-care communication systems

The sensitivity of health-care information and its accessibility via the Internet and mobile technology systems is a cause for concern in these modern times. The privacy, integrity and confidentiality of a patient’s data are key factors to be considered in the transmission of medical information for use by authorised health-care personnel. Mobile communication has enabled medical consultancy, treatment, drug administration and the provision of laboratory results to take place outside the hospital. With the implementation of electronic patient records and the Internet and Intranets, medical information sharing amongst relevant health-care providers was made possible. But the vital issue in this method of information sharing is security: the patient’s privacy, as well as the confidentiality and integrity of the health-care information system, should not be compromised. We examine various ways of ensuring the security and privacy of a patient’s electronic medical information in order to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of the information

The Function of State and Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities in International Cooperation in Criminal Matters: The Position in Switzerland

In so far as diplomats are concerned, their immunity from legal process arises under customary international law and treaty law (i.e., the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,\u27 the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,2 and the New York Convention on Special Missions\u27 (or New York Convention )). All three conventions state in their preliminaries that diplomatic immunity and privilege arise from international custom and that their function is not to benefit individuals, but to ensure the smooth and efficient performance of their duties in the interest of comity and of friendly relations between sovereign nations

A Comprehensive Study on the Global Regulatory Requirements for the submission of a Post-Approval Change, specifically a Change in Manufacturing Site

Magister Scientiae - MSc (Pharmacy Administration and Policy Regulation)Regulatory requirements for post-approval changes vary for different countries around the world. It is a challenging and costly process for pharmaceutical companies to manage changes to the approved regulatory dossier over the lifecycle of the product when it is registered in many countries. In practice the process can be complex, unpredictable and time consuming because of regional differences and frequent changes in regulatory procedures, requirements and timelines. The global regulatory requirements for the submission of a post-approval change, specifically a change in manufacturing site, were reviewed for six jurisdictions for this study. These include United States of America (US), Europe (EU), South Africa, Brazil, Russia and China. The study centred on the differences in the documentation required when submitting a post-approval change for a change in manufacturing site in these countries. The study compared and contrasted the differences and similarities between the jurisdictions. An analysis of the challenges for implementation of the change was performed. The study also examined what resources a company may need in order to meet the requirements. Some notable similarities but also many differences in the post-approval submission requirements between the countries were identified. Some of the similarities included classification of the type of variation, the submission application process, and the requirement to provide supportive stability data and updates to the common technical dossier (CTD). Differences highlighted were the types of application forms required, the amount of stability data required to support the change and the time lines for review of post-approval changes in each jurisdiction. The challenge for pharmaceutical companies arises in the effective management of these differences. Investment in a robust regulatory change management team is an essential resource requirement for pharmaceutical companies. Adoption of a QbD approach and careful consideration of the global requirements during the product development phase could potentially be of use in strategic planning within a company in order to ensure continued product access globally