Initially, work on translation concentrated on exploiting the capacity of African languages to express modernity. Later research in translation in sub-Saharan Africa has concentrated on legal ethnography, working on ontological systems, legal texts within which a multiplicity of sources of law are intermingled, in particular customary law, civil law and common law. These justice systems are superimposed and intertwined, giving rise to a legal disorder. The post-colonial African countries have the major challenge, apart from the one-way communication which characterises them, with what can be called interjuridicity, a zone of interference where jurisigns (borrowings and legal calques) appear. The concept of interjuridicity sheds light on the problems of legal translation in sub-Saharan Africa which can be solved by applying various heuristic approaches.

In the framework of humanitarian mediation, multilingual communication has a strong cultural component. This article begins by situating the Other in a global fashion, and then goes on to view ways in which a balance of perception can be established between those involved by working out a precise, rigorous diagnosis to shed light on the conceptions, feelings and intentions of all concerned, illustrated by several examples. Amongst the tools used, mention should be made of distancing, decentring, intercultural competence and Natural Semantic Metalanguage.

Haitian society is characterized by a number of dichotomies which are manifested in law in the form of an unequal bilingualism and a particular form of bijuralism. The legal integration of the Nation implies that the law be expressed in creole and that customary standards should be taken into account in written law. These measures would enrich substantive law in Haiti, though complex to implement.

The harmonisation of the laws of Member States in various areas of private law constitutes an important element of the European Union integration process. The principal legislative mechanism used to achieve this harmonisation is the directive. Effective harmonisation of national laws can only be achieved if the Community legislation is applied in the same way in the different national legal systems. Many of the challenges in ensuring a harmonised application of community legislation are connected to issues of legal language. Amongst other examples, this paper will use the European directive on product liability (la responsabilité du fait des produits défectueux) as an illustration of the various language issues raised and the solutions available to ensure an effective level of harmonisation. This will be done through a study of the English and French versions of the directive, and by considering the experience of the implementation of the provisions of the directive in French and English law.