Legal Spanish Translation Dictionaries

Even after so much studying and training, however, legal translators are like translators with other types of specialities: they all need and rely on a collection of legal Spanish translation dictionaries and glossaries to help them with their translation work.

This is even true for translators that are not legal translators by training, but find themselves doing legal-type translations every once in a while. As much as we translators are taught that we should never translate outside our area of specialization, outside factors like economics (a big one) and pride in our abilities to translate everything out there (maybe not so big) seem to dictate otherwise, and most of us will do a translation that we don't feel totally comfortable with at least once or twice during our translation careers.

When it happens that we translators find ourselves in a situation where we need to do legal translations, one of the most important tools to have at our disposal is legal Spanish translation dictionaries and glossaries. In fact, I find that it's a good idea to have different kinds of specialized dictionaries on a variety of different subjects just in case I'm ever called on to translate something I don't feel fully comfortable with.

Since this article is about legal translation, though, let's take a look at some of the various legal Spanish translation dictionaries that are out there to use right now. I've divided the list into two parts: the first consisting of free legal translation dictionaries and glossaries that you'll find online, and the second part being legal Spanish dictionaries you can purchase.

Free Spanish Translation Legal Dictionaries

Glossary of Legal Terminology, English-Spanish
This is a 16-page glossary compiled by Karen Ratay, a Spanish interpreter and translator. The glossary has been provided for the Wisconsin Court System.

English-Spanish Glossary of Legal & Public Benefits Terms
This standardized glossary of terms related to Civil Law, Human Rights Law, Constitutional Law, Public Benefits Law, and Administrative Law. The glossary was compiled by the Interpreter Planning Partnership and Legal Services of Northern Virginia.

Free Glossary/Dictionary of Legal English - Spanish Court Terms
This is a pretty extensive glossary hosted by Ernesto Romero, a lawyer based out of Wisconsin.

English/Spanish Legal Glossary
Glossary prepared by the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento, and is a pretty good general reference.

English/Spanish Glossary for Clerks of Superior Court
This glossary was developed by the Administrative Office of the Courts in North Carolina to help clerks in providing help to Spanish speakers.

English-Spanish Glossary of Important Political Science Terms
This glossary is pretty restricted to political science terms, but does have some valuable legal terms that translators will find helpful.

Glossary of Legal (and related) Terms and Courthouse Signs
According to the document, this glossary is a working compilation of terminological choices made by the translation team that issues official translations of documents issued by the Administrative Office of the Courts.

English - Spanish Legal Terminology GlossaryDocument from the Utah State Courts website intended as guidance in navigating the Utah court system in English and Spanish.

Paid Spanish Translation Legal Dictionaries

Diccionario de Terminos Legales Espanol - Ingles y Ingles - Espanol / Dictionary of Legal Terms Spanish - English and English - Spanish
This dictionary was first published during the 1950s, and while it hasn't been updated for a while, legal terms in general haven't changed very much.

Here are some other dictionaries you also might want to check out:

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