Vol. 14 (2025)
Artificial Intelligence and the Language of Law

Special Issue

Translation in the European Union: Navigating Technical and Legal Issues in the Light of Artificial Intelligence — Conclusions

Published 01.07.2025

  • Laure Clément-Wilz
    • ,
  • Agata de Laforcade
    • ,
  • Ilaria Cennamo

Abstract

The article explains the choice of this special issue, dealing with the challenges of legal translation in the European Union in the light of artificial intelligence. It summarises the contributions and shares some reflections that can be inferred from them. This topic, through an inter- disciplinary approach which is based on the integration between European Law studies, Juri- linguistics and Translation Studies, shows that AI – at the intersection of these three disciplines – is profoundly challenging each of them. Firstly, it claims that while AI enhances productivity and supports translation tasks, it often falls short in ensuring contextual accuracy, terminological consistency, and legal nuance – necessitating continued human oversight. Secondly, this article restates the importance of comparative law, embedded in legal culture, in legal translation. It shows that AI is presented either as a source of fears and constraints, or as a source of hope and potential solutions as regards the protection of legal cultures. The contribution therefore argues that legal expertise is indispensable in the post-editing phase per- formed by humans. Lastly, this study presents potential pathways for the future development of AI in the field of legal translation within the EU, such as establishing a taxonomy of documents to be translated in order to determine the different levels of AI intervention. More broadly, the future lies in teaching and research design. Neural translation systems integration has determined a new paradigm shift which has been recently defined as Posthumanism, in opposition to the anthropocentrism of humanism.

Cite as: Clément-Wilz et al., JLL 14 (2025),240–255, DOI: 10.14762/jll.2025.240

Keywords

legal translation, European Union law, multilingualism, comparative law, artificial intelligence, machine translation

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