This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
French to English translations [PRO] Law/Patents - Law (general)
French term or phrase:La loi relative au devoir de vigilance
I’m translating a text from Swedish which refers to “the French law on due diligence” in the context of forced labour, and I’ve narrowed it down to this particular piece of legislation, but it seems to have a few different names in English online.
Does it have an official English name? Or do the French not do that?
Corporate Duty of Vigilance Law seems to get the most hits on Google, but it is listed alongside the UK Modern Slavery Act, so calling it a law rather than an act is messing with my OCD. Are French laws always called laws rather than acts?
A second solution, if you want to provide some extra context for your readers, would be to flesh out the content of Act.
The key issues are listed here: "Le plan comporte les mesures de vigilance raisonnable propres à identifier les risques et à prévenir les atteintes graves envers les droits humains et les libertés fondamentales, la santé et la sécurité des personnes ainsi que l'environnement,"
Thus, in addition to the English title suggested above, insert in round brackets after it, "regarding human rights and fundamental freedoms, health and safety, and the environment". (These concepts could also be bundled as "Environmental and Social Policy".)
Obviously if your whole text is about the above (which my instinct tells me it is), then there is not really any need for this.
A last option would be to provide the name of the Act in French, a link to it, and the note above as a footnote, which would keep your main text unclogged and flowing.
So I suppose you've got a few choices.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 8 hrs (2021-01-01 15:55:53 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
One of the few "lois" to be translated (if not the only one) was rendered into French as (draw breath at this point), the:
"ACT N°78-17 OF 6 JANUARY 1978 ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, DATA FILES AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
AMENDED BY THE FOLLOWING LAWS: ACT OF 6 AUGUST 2004 RELATIVE TO THE PROTECTION OF INDIVIDUALS WITH REGARD TO THE PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA ACT OF 13 MAY 2009 RELATIVE TO THE SIMPLIFICATION AND CLARIFICATION OF LAW AND LIGHTER PROCEDURES LAW NO.2009-526 DATED 13/05/2009 ORGANIC LAW NO.2010-704 DATED 28/06/2010 LAW NO.2011-334 DATED 29 MARCH 2011 RELATIVE TO THE DÉFENSEUR DES DROITS ORDINANCE NO.2011-1012 DATED 24/08/2011 LAW NO.2011-334 DATED 29/03/2011 LAW NO.2013-907 DATED 11/10/2013 LAW NO.2014-334 DATED 17/03/2014"
You can see Tony's point about poor quality and consistency. I still prefer "Act" though.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 8 hrs (2021-01-01 15:58:27 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
translated: translated "officially" I mean, under the aegis of Legifrance.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 2 days 13 hrs (2021-01-03 20:36:38 GMT) Post-grading --------------------------------------------------
To Nikki:
Of course you could always avoid the question of on/in relation to/regarding etc. by anglicising the structure of the name of the Act, i.e.
the Parents Companies...Duty of Care Act
Personally I like to retain the original "skeleton" when I can.
The EU uses "on", for the record, e.g.:
"Regulation on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC"
Wow, KudoZ is different here. In Swedish, I’d get one short comment saying no there isn’t an official translation, and then three days later a points hunter would put the obvious answer I’ve already supplied, and that would be it ;-) Thank you all for your contributions. I’m giving the points to Conor because he came up with something new, duty of care, which I like, but I will be using vigilance as I think that’s the most likely to help the reader identify which act it is, in the unlikely event of anyone actually caring. It is only a passing mention anyway, really. 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
"Selon notre opinion, les contours du devoir de vigilance qui émerge de la loi française s’apparentent à plusieurs égards au duty of care propre à la common law et qui est imposé conjointement aux administrateurs de l’entreprise et à l’entreprise, tout particulièrement lorsqu’il s’agit de la norme exigeant le respect des droits humains et de l’environnement."
Probably not an easy question. Does the Swedish actually refer to the "French law on..." in which case it might actually be referring to the body of law concerned and thus to Acts, regulations and other sources of law as a group of sources. If it is referring specifically to the Loi that Conor refers to, then without a reference somewhere to the full title and, at the very least, a date, that leaves it open to room for being mistaken for another source.
"Duty of care" has quite a particular meaning in a UK context. Reasonability comes into it but so does foreseeability. A "duty to exercise due diligence" might be preferable here. It's basically about reasonability and is commonly used, internationally, in business contexts.
These are the types of questions that come into mind on this one. Not easy as the source is not clear to me. Tony's suggestion is one way round it. Conner presents another path. Might I suggest:
"the [French] Act* on due diligence for companies**"?
* if referring to a specific piece of legislation rather than a body of law from a number of sources: ** if referring the statute Conor refers to, then the full title specifies certain types of companies only.
Very interesting indeed, in terms of the content and of this specific question.
I suppose you could just call it "French Act no 2017-399 of 27 March 2017 (known as the Potier Act)" and be done with it, if you wanted to avoid the question a bit. Except M. Potier was busy that year: https://information.tv5monde.com/info/accaparement-des-terre...
Wow, KudoZ is different here. In Swedish, I’d get one short comment saying no there isn’t an official translation, and then three days later a points hunter would put the obvious answer I’ve already supplied, and that would be it ;-) Thank you all for your contributions. I’m giving the points to Conor because he came up with something new, duty of care, which I like, but I will be using vigilance as I think that’s the most likely to help the reader identify which act it is, in the unlikely event of anyone actually caring. It is only a passing mention anyway, really.
At least eight Codes were translated, plus the neatly-worded "INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, DATA FILES AND CIVIL LIBERTIES ACT". I know because I downloaded them all and have them on file.
As Tony says, they're not perfect, and many are out of date following amendments, but they're at least a starting point.
Contact me directly if you would like one (or all) of the documents. Same goes for everybody.
OK, thanks for that. That does kinda tie in with the stereotype... The Scandis have an official, or at least accepted, English name for most things because it makes life easier for the rest of the world.
Examples of my personal strategy are: ... the French Civil Code (Code civil) ... French data protection legislation (Loi Informatiques & Libertés) ... French Law no. 38973 dated 14 January 1998
There's no reason why it should have an official English title since, unlike (say) a UN treaty or an EU directive, it's not an international law. But are you sure the Swedish refers to this specific French law/act?
Sadly, there are few 'official' translations of French laws, and the ones there are in general are quite poor and frequently inconsistent, so difficult to rely on! Even the Legifrance website itself has taken down most if not all of the EN translations it used to have! In order to be able to refer to the law correctly, the best thing might be to use the FR title, followed by an EN 'explanation' in ( ) afterwards. To answer the second part of the question, yes, French laws are invariably called a 'Law', the term 'Act' is not used, and it would seem perverse to me to try and shoe-horn it into this text. Likewise, note that what would be called a 'Bill' in the UK is a 'projet de loi' in FR. BTW, in many cases, where I opt for the 'FR + (EN explanation)', I often add 'French...' to my explanation, to make it clear which particualr legislation we are talking about — this is clearly important when talking about a Law whose title might correspond closely to a similar Act in EN.
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
10 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
Due diligence law
Explanation: Origine de Due Diligence
Selon le principe "caveat emptor" (Que l'acheteur soit vigilant) du droit romain, c'est à l'acheteur de se méfier, du fait qu'il ne peut se fier totalement au vendeur. Il présumera donc la mauvaise foi (ce qui est une anomalie juridique) chez l'une des parties.
Équivalents français
En droit des affaires, elle se manifeste de deux façons :
*l'audit préalable (Journal officiel du 28 décembre 2006) : investigation qui implique le recours à des experts, notamment comptables, financiers, juridiques, fiscaux ou sociaux, dont les conclusions serviront de base à la prise de décision d'un investisseur.
*l'obligation de VIGILANCE (Journal officiel du 28 décembre 2006) : ensemble de prescriptions légales imposant aux établissements de crédit et à toute personne recueillant des fonds, des contrôles visant à identifier leur interlocuteur et l'origine de ses ressources.
peer agreement (net): +1
