Legal Latin - Canon Law, Roman Law, Maxims in Court and the Deeds of Centuries Past

Canon law: tribunals, decrees and the documents of Church governance

The Catholic Church's law is written in Latin - the Codex Iuris Canonici, the decrees and instructions of the Roman Dicasteries, the jurisprudence of the Roman Rota and the Apostolic Signatura - and its administration in Georgia, through the Apostolic Administration of the Caucasus, produces and receives Latin documents constantly: decrees of erection and suppression of parishes, appointments and faculties, statutes of associations and religious institutes, the acts of marriage nullity cases (libellus, citations, testimonies, the sentence and the decree of confirmation), dispensations and rescripts, and correspondence with Rome. We translate these between Latin, Georgian, Italian and English with a specialist in canonical terminology, for the Administration, for parishes, for tribunals and for the parties to canonical processes, and we notarize them where civil authorities - the House of Justice registering a marriage, a court recognizing a canonical decision's civil effects where relevant - are involved.

Roman law and the sources of Georgian civil law

Georgian civil law, like the German and continental systems it draws on, descends from Roman law, and Georgian law faculties teach the Institutes, the Digest and the Codex in translation and in the original. We translate Roman legal sources - passages of the Corpus Iuris Civilis, the writings of the classical jurists, the Twelve Tables, imperial constitutions - for Georgian legal scholars, textbooks and law journals, and the medieval and early modern commentaries of the glossators, the commentators and the humanist jurists for historians of law. We also translate Georgian legal scholarship into Latin where a ceremonial or comparative occasion calls for it, and we check the Latin quotations in Georgian legal writing for accuracy.

Latin maxims and clauses in contracts, judgments and pleadings

Lawyers in Georgia, as everywhere, use Latin: bona fide, pacta sunt servanda, res judicata, ultra vires, force majeure's Latin cousins vis maior and casus fortuitus, in dubio pro reo, nemo dat quod non habet, lex specialis derogat legi generali, and hundreds more, in contracts, pleadings, judgments and academic writing. Misused Latin in a contract or a judgment causes real disputes about meaning. We translate and explain Latin maxims and clauses in Georgian, English and other languages, advise on their correct form and the doctrine behind them, check the Latin in draft contracts and legal texts, and translate the Latin phrases embedded in foreign judgments, arbitral awards and legal opinions that reach Georgian courts and clients. For law firms we prepare glossaries of the maxims their practice uses, with Georgian and English equivalents.

Historical deeds, charters and notarial Latin

Georgian archives, and foreign archives holding Georgian material, contain Latin legal documents from the medieval and early modern periods: papal bulls and letters to Georgian kings, charters and privileges granted to Catholic missions in Georgia, notarial deeds of Genoese and Venetian merchants in the Black Sea trade, treaties and diplomatic correspondence in Latin, and the Latin of European chancelleries dealing with the Caucasus. Property and inheritance disputes occasionally still turn on early modern deeds in Latin from countries where notarial Latin persisted, and genealogical and heritage claims on Latin charters. Our palaeographers read the hands and formulas of chancery and notarial Latin, deliver transcriptions and translations, and explain the diplomatic conventions - dating clauses, witness lists, seals - that determine a document's authenticity and force.

Latin in corporate names, trademarks and commercial documents

Companies choose Latin names and slogans because they sound established, and then need them explained, defended or registered. We translate and advise on Latin company names, trademarks and slogans for registration at Sakpatenti and abroad, check that a proposed Latin name means what the founders think and does not mean something else, translate Latin phrases in foreign corporate documents - articles of association, certificates and seals of old European companies and institutions - that reach Georgian registries, and compose Latin names and mottos for Georgian companies, funds and institutions that want them. Pharmaceutical and botanical trade documents with Latin nomenclature are handled on the medical and technical page.

Confidentiality, specialists and how legal Latin work runs

Canonical processes and legal disputes are confidential, and every philologist and legal specialist on these files is bound by a non-disclosure agreement, with files encrypted and access limited to the assigned team; canonical files are handled with the additional discretion the Church requires. Legal Latin is translated by philologists who have studied Roman or canon law, and reviewed by a lawyer where the translation will be used in proceedings. Work is quoted per document for maxims, clauses and short texts, per page for sources and commentaries, and individually for palaeographic work on deeds and charters. Notarization for civil use and chancery certification for Church use are arranged as needed, and legalization follows the routes on the legalization page.

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