Legal Contract Translation Problems: Voices from Sudanese Translation Practitioners

This exploratory study is set to investigate Sudanese translation practitioners' perceptions about language-related challenges encountered when translating legal contracts. It attempts to explore those practitioners' perceptions and views about these difficulties in the Gulf context, specifically in Oman and the UAE, and compare them with related findings from empirical literature. The significance of the present study stems from the fact that the results may help legal translation practitioners to improve their practices. To achieve the study objectives a questionnaire was designed and distributed to thirty-three Sudanese translation practitioners to collect data. Additionally, relevant literature was reviewed to pinpoint the gaps in this area and support information stemming from the questionnaire. The findings show that translation practitioners' perceptions about legal contracts translation challenges are consistent with findings in the empirical literature. The study specifically shows that the most apparent challenges are: language-related challenges, followed by style-related challenges, culture-specific challenges, and culture-specific challenges, respectively. The study also concluded with some key relevant recommendations: First, legal contracts should be translated by well-trained and certified translators. Second, workshops and training on legal translation should be conducted periodically and training should be one of the requirements for practising and joining legal translation industry. Moreover, translators of legal contracts should be accredited individually and that should be conducted by experts and specialized bodies.