Louisiana Supreme Court issued the following announcement on June 8.
The Law Library of Louisiana and the Supreme Court of Louisiana Historical Society recently co-sponsored a free CLE titled, Translating the Louisiana Civil Code into Spanish: A Jurilinguistic Exercise. This free CLE, which was held via webinar, was attended by 284 people including 42 persons who joined from other countries around the world. This is the latest translation project undertaken by the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law School’s Center of Civil Law Studies (CCLS). Previous projects include translating the Louisiana Civil Code into French, and a new translation of the English version of Louisiana’s 1825 Civil Code.
“I think the turnout, especially including such a large international audience, further underscores the quality programming offered by the Law Library of Louisiana and Supreme Court of Louisiana Historical Society,” said Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice John L. Weimer. “The level of interest in these programs both locally and internationally affirms the Library’s commitment to offering interesting and informative content for its audiences.”
The CLE was presented by Mariano Vitetta, research associate at CCLS, where he is responsible for the translation of the Louisiana Civil Code from English into Spanish under the leadership of Professor Olivier Moréteau. Translating a civil code is a complex endeavor calling for expertise in both the law and legal translation, thus a “jurilinguistic” exercise. The Louisiana Civil Code, a unique piece of legislation that sets Louisiana apart, requires an approach combining legal translation, comparative law, and legal history. Participants in the CLE learned about the project’s history and the intricacies of the translation process. With a Spanish translation, CCLS at LSU plans to make Louisiana’s flagship legal instrument available to the legal Spanish-speaking community at large, while also paying homage to the years in which the territory was part of Spain. Civil Code Books I and IV in Spanish are now available on the Louisiana Civil Code Online trilingual database alongside the English and the French translation, which can be accessed here: https://www.law.lsu.edu/clo/louisiana-civil-code-online/
Mariano Vitetta obtained a degree as a certified legal translator (English-Spanish) and a law degree from the University of Buenos Aires. He also obtained an LL.M. in Comparative Law from LSU, with a dissertation on the connection between European-style codification and plain language. He has taught English-Spanish legal translation (CAECE University), legal writing and drafting in Spanish (Argentine Catholic University), and introduction to the common law tradition for law students (Austral University). Mr. Vitetta has been working for more than 15 years as a legal translator for law firms, companies, and academic institutions. His most recent published translations include Por qué el derecho importa (Alon Harel, Marcial Pons 2018) and Fostering Innovation for Agriculture 4.0: A Comprehensive Plant Germplasm System (Miguel Ángel Rapela, Springer 2019).
Original source can be found here.