Intercomprehension and Lingua Receptiva at the European Institutions - What is the Potential for the Work of Translators at the European Court of Justice?

Abstract

This thesis examines the potential of Intercomprehension and Lingua Receptiva to improve and facilitate the work of translators at European institutions, with special focus on the European Court of Justice. After the enlargement of the European Union, the need for translations at the Court of Justice has increased enormously. To deal with this problem, a non-direct translation system was introduced at the Court and other institutions, even though many translators were unsatisfied with it. This research is based on two predecessor studies which examined the translation system at the Court and the already existing use of Intercomprehension at the European Commission. A semi-structured interview was used to obtain the results presented in this thesis. These results align with the data gathered in the previous studies, which showed that Intercomprehension and Lingua Receptiva are already being used by translators at the Commission. The translator from the Court of Justice who was interviewed for this research stated that he made use of both concepts during his translation work. Intercomprehension and Lingua Receptiva have potential to improve the work of translators at European institutions, but more large scale research is needed to find out how this potential could best be used and implemented at institutions like the European Court of Justice.