Creating Multilingual Law: Language and Translation at the Court of Justice of the European Union

This chapter focuses on the relationship between law, language and translation in the EU legal order, specifically in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). In that multilingual legal order, language plays a key role in determining judicial outcomes at the EU level, and also in shaping the development of that law. Using language as a lens through which to investigate the production of a key source of EU law can not only provide a fuller understanding of how CJEU case law has evolved, but can also illustrate the limitations of a multilingual legal system. The Court of Justice produces case law in up to 24 languages and, while the Court’s internal working language is French, the various case file documents go through many permutations of translation into and out of those 24 languages. Furthermore, the judgments delivered by the CJEU are not simply drafted by judges sitting alone or in chambers in secret deliberations. It is in fact created through a unique multilayered and multilingual process. This chapter explores that process, focusing on the role that translation, whether visible or ‘hidden’, plays in the production of EU case law.