The CTTJ is actively involved in the standardization and dissemination of French common law terminology. This project, which is coordinated by the CTTJ, is carried out in collaboration with the Terminology Standardization Division of the Translation Bureau of the Government of Canada (TSD-TB) and the other Canadian centres of jurilinguistics (the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Legal Translation and Documentation (CTDJ), the Université de Saint-Boniface’s Centre de ressources en français juridique and McGill University’s Paul-André Crépeau Centre for Private and Comparative Law). The project is made possible with the financial support of Justice Canada.
Decisions regarding the standardization of French common law terminology are reached by a committee made up of representatives of the aforementioned centres and the TSD-TB from term-analysis documents that are prepared by the CTTJ, the CTDJ and the TSD-TB. Each document is structured around a family of terms within a certain field of study. It includes a notional analysis of these terms, followed by an exploration of the various French equivalents to be considered and a glossary.
French equivalents are chosen according to the particular needs of common law users, while respecting the internal logic of this legal system. The French words used to convey common law concepts are, with a few exceptions, words in use in everyday language or in specialized languages, but often combined in a new way to meet the particular needs of expression of the common law. All French common law terms, whether simple or complex, have meaning only in relation to this system of law, regardless of the parallel use of the same words and expressions in other contexts, including civil law.
In total, more than 10 000 French terms have been standardized. These terms have been included in the following terminological data banks: Termium and Juriterm, as well as in the following works :
- Vocabulaire bilingue de la common law : droit de la preuve (ABC, 1984)
- Canadian Common Law Dictionary: Law of Property and Estates (CBA, 1997)
- Law of Trusts Glossary (Common Law) (TB 259, 2005)
- Law of Contracts and Law of Torts Glossary (Common Law) (TB 266, 2008)
- Law of Security Glossary (Common Law) (TB 269, 2009).
- Family Law Glossary (Common Law) (TB 271, 2014).
- Alternative Dispute Resolution Glossary (Common Law) (TB 296, 2019)
- Domestic Violence Glossary – Draft Version (May 2022).
In addition to our work within the Standardization Committee, the CTTJ also collaborates on other lexicographical projects, such as the Centre de ressources en français juridique’s mini-lexicons and the dictionary La common law de A à Z. The CTTJ also updates JURITERM on a regular basis.
