Semantic Differences of Modal Verb "Shall" and "May"in Legal Text Translation

The semantic differences of modal verbs exist between legal text and plain text. In legal English, the "shall" expresses "mandate, necessity, or compulsion," especially in statutory or judicial directives, and the "may" is to "be allowed to or have permission to." The paper reasons the differences and analyzes. the basic legal English meanings and the equivalent legal Chinese meanings of "shall" and "may," which is essential for the reasonable translation of "shall" and "may" in legal texts. General rules are deduced from the comparison though the legal English meanings of "shall" and "may" are different from that of plain English and can't be fully matched with the "yinggai" and "Ice'neng" in legal Chinese.