English translation: Federal Office of Justice of France
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08:15 Feb 10, 2011
French to English translations [PRO] Law/Patents - Government / Politics / casier judiciaire
French term or phrase:Office fédéral de la justice
Bonjour, je traduis un casier judiciaire et en en-tête figure "Office fédéral de la Justice".
Le traduit-on par "French republic department of justice ? ou me trompe-je ?
A translator's job is not to "convert" terms like this to the local "equivalent" - in my view a dangerous practice when dealing, in particular, with administrative and legal entities. In this case, the asker couldn't even bother to answer requests for clarification and chose a ridiculous answer
regardless of the country, one should never translate terms like these, as they are specific to the culture from which they spring - one should merely reproduce them and then offer an explanation or propose a translation in brackets or in a footnote depending on the house style. I recently had a text containing the term which was definitely from Switzerland, although it was apparently written in French (Be) just to be confusing....but anyway, I think it almost definitely Swiss....
As you can see, various people would appreciate your contribution. Are you ABSOLUTELY sure this is from France, as I, among others, think it is referring to Switzerland
Please respond, thank you.
My query is not with the translation of casier judiciaire – what I was contesting was that two answers have been proposed suggesting that "of France" should be included in the translation, when this document is more than likely of Swiss origin.
heading is already such a stumbling block. And no one has come up with a single French reference showing that there is an Office fédéral de la justice in France. We are still waiting for that.
The Asker is translating a "casier judiciaire" - I was just showing that my French "casier judiciaire" has different wording, supporting the theory that the source text here is not from France
...unless I've missed something, this doesn't show that the word "Fédéral" is used in the title of any French government department, which is the point at issue.
http://www.justice.gouv.fr/le-ministere-de-la-justice-10017/... for instance. Of course this amounts to the French equivalent-all countries have the equivalent. The point is that the term in this question is not from France. Unless there is suddenly a federal govt. in France.
It's one of those old-fashioned paper things on my desk :-) It's one that I had to get to become an officially-recognised language trainer. Shows that I haven't committed any heinous crimes.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2