I’m sure that a considerable amount of many legal translators’ work consists of contracts or agreements of one sort or another. The Society of European Contract Law (SECOLA) has a good resource, useful for both lawyers and translators – the EC Contract Law Database.

Contract in demotic writing, with signature of a witness on the verso. Papyrus, Ptolemaic era.

In their database you can find the following:

• General Statutes;
• Employment Contracts;
• Financial Services;
• Travel Contracts;
• Exempted Contracts;
• Public Contracts; and
• Intellectual Property Agreements.

Information available for each piece of legislation comprises:

• the text of the directive (in various languages);
• references to literature pertaining to the Directive in some cases; and
• for some countries*, the text of national transposition(s) of the directive and any relevant literature.

* Don’t be disappointed if national transposition data is not available for each section – there is still a great deal of information in the database. I have contacted those responsible about possible updates and hope to have more information for you soon.

SECOLA is also organizing a conference on contract law – I’ll be posting details tomorrow.