Organising a profession: The role of associations during the adoption of the new law for legal interpreting and translation (LIT) in Spain

Abstract

The establishment and consolidation of sound professional organisations is a necessary step towards the professionalisation of community interpreting, alongside the adoption of legal provisions. This contribution will firstly focus on how the community of translators and interpreters in Spain is organised professionally. Next it will analyse its role in the current process of introducing a new regulatory framework for legal interpreting and translation (LIT) and a register of court interpreters and translators. These changes respond to the obligation to transpose EU supranational legislation which aims to secure interpreting and translation quality, and the right to a fair trial in multilingual proceedings. The main features and shortcomings of the newly introduced Spanish legislation (Ley Orgánica 5/2015) will also be addressed and critically discussed in this chapter.