On the afternoon of October 25, 2024, the fourth installment of the Hong Kong Law Lecture Series on "Legal Translation" was successfully conducted at Beijing Normal University's Zhuhai campus. The lecture was delivered by Ma Yaotian, a part-time professor at the Law School of Beijing Normal University, and skillfully moderated by Zhao Wenzong, a chair professor at the same institution. The event was well-attended by a group of master's and doctoral students from Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai.
In 1998, Professor Ma Yaotian was honored with the appointment as a Justice of the Peace. In 2015, he was recognized with the Hong Kong Silver Bauhinia Star, and in 2017, he was named an Honorary Fellow of the Hong Kong Translation Society. He serves as a council member of the China Law Society and is a senior member of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors. Professor Ma is a qualified legal practitioner in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and a barrister in Hong Kong, with a focus on various dispute resolution disciplines and a commitment to engaging in public service. Prior to the commencement of the lecture, Professor Zhao Wenzong extended a warm welcome to Professor Ma Yaotian, expressed sincere gratitude for his meticulous preparation, and provided a concise overview of Professor Ma's academic expertise and notable accomplishments.
At the outset of the lecture, Professor Ma Yaotian engaged the audience with the question, "Why did you choose to attend this legal translation lecture?" This interactive approach helped to foster a closer connection with the students. Following this, he shared an intricate narrative of the historical journey toward the implementation of bilingual legislation in both Chinese and English within Hong Kong, drawing from his own experiences in the field of legal translation. Professor Ma Yaotian highlighted the challenges encountered in the translation of the comprehensive set of Hong Kong laws into Chinese prior to the territory's return, such as the scarcity of precedents for translating English laws into Chinese, the limited number of professionals skilled in legal translation, and the nuanced differences in linguistic connotations across various legal systems. He noted that, in order to preserve the translation's clarity and precision, translators resorted to strategies including the coinage of new terms and the restructuring of sentence patterns.
Subsequently, Professor Ma Yaotian elaborated on the measures taken by Hong Kong to accelerate the certification process of Chinese legal texts. By further simplifying the legislative process and allocating additional resources, over 20000 pages of Chinese translations were finally confirmed through the legislative process before June 1997. To help students understand, Professor Ma Yaotian listed certified bilingual translations in Chinese and English, such as "Barrister" and "大律师", "Possession" and "管有".
Furthermore, Professor Ma Yaotian delved into the policy of bilingual concurrent drafting of legislation and the deliberative processes employed by legislative bodies. He elucidated the legal constructs that address discrepancies in meaning between the Chinese and English texts of regulations. To illustrate the legal principles guiding common law judges in the interpretation of statutes, he cited a recent ruling from the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal as a case in point.
Concluding the lecture, Professor Zhao Wenzong engaged in a constructive dialogue with Professor Ma Yaotian. Professor Zhao Wenzong began by extending his appreciation to Professor Ma Yaotian for his exemplary presentation and shared his insights on the lecture's content. He also connected the discussion to real-life applications, expressing his sincere hope that students would contribute to the global dissemination of China's legal system. In response, Professor Ma Yaotian addressed Professor Zhao Wenzong's remarks in detail and encouraged students with a passion for legal translation to explore the field more profoundly. He welcomed the students to continue engaging in meaningful exchanges with him on the subject.
The lecture not only imparted to students a deep insight into the history of bilingual legislation in Hong Kong but also enriched their knowledge in the field of legal translation. As such, the session concluded successfully, met with resounding applause.