Legal terminology of the European Union

Abstract

This chapter addresses EU (European Union) language and terminology, commencing with the EU legal context. EU law constitutes a legal order created by agreement between Member States under international law. This legal order creates the context for terms, with legal texts as the sites of engagement, each containing different domains of terminology. The EU legal order is multilingual, and each text comprises a single multilingual message. This singularity generates pressure towards equivalence in meaning with consequences for drafting, translation, and terminology. Implications and examples are drawn from environmental law. Meanings are determined by the Court of Justice of the European Union. EU legal language and terminology is amenable to analysis through the use of corpora. Terminological information is recorded and diffused via IATE.