Translation difficulties

The launch of the English-language version was not easy.

Work on it took four experienced translators from the China Foreign Language Publishing Administration almost a year. The administration is also responsible for translating documents from other government authorities, according to the top court.

"It's hard for us to translate these legal articles with Chinese characteristics," said Wang Mingjie, one of the translators with more than 40 years' experience.

Liu Ze said the court initially wanted the translators to complete translation of nearly 40,000 Chinese words within two months.

"But we never expected this to be suspended for more than six months," Liu said.

The report was then split into four sections, with each revised at least 10 times by the translators, he said.

For the translation of every judicial term, judges in charge of the Chinese-language report at the top court provided the translators with a written-text explanation "which was about 80,000 words, more than twice the number in the Chinese edition", Liu said.

For example, he said, the translators asked many times what the term "procuratorial supervision" means, as it has several meanings in English. It generally means that prosecution authorities can supervise police and courts in criminal cases to ensure there is no abuse of power.

Wang said explaining these judicial terms took up most of their time.