Ciklopea at Professionalization vs. Deprofessionalization: Building Standards for Legal Translators and Interpreters Conference

Last weekend, from 19 to 21 March 2015, an international conference entitled “Professionalization vs. Deprofessionalization: Building Standards for Legal Translators and Interpreters” was held in Opatija. The conference was organized by EULITA, the Croatian Association of Court Interpreters and Translators, and the Jean Monnet Inter-University Centre of Excellence, and brought together numerous experts in the field of legal translation and interpretation from both Croatia and various other European countries.

Members of the Ciklopea team were proud to be a part of such a community of professionals, who gave very interesting talks. Participants had the opportunity to find out about legal translator and interpreter training, court interpreting, document translation, EU translation, and safety issues for court interpreters, all in view of supporting the trend towards the professionalization of the profession. Some of the presenters shared their experiences in both teaching legal translation and translating, i.e. interpreting in legal settings, while others wanted to raise awareness of the dangers, problems, and challenges legal translators, and especially interpreters, face and are forced to cope with. The importance of introducing an ISO standard for interpreting in judicial settings was also discussed, and was the subject of Liese Katschinka’s presentation. Katschinka is EULITA’s President, and her great expertise and professionalism left everybody, especially the younger generations, in awe.

Needless to say, the conference was a success, thanks to the organizers and the excellent venue in the beautiful city of Opatija, which served as an ideal setting for networking and exchanging experiences.