STANDARDIZATION AND UNIFICATION IN LEGAL TRANSLATION: HARMONIZING CROSS-LINGUISTIC VARIATIONS BETWEEN ENGLISH AND UZBEK LEGAL FRAMEWORKS

Abstract

The globalization of trade, international diplomacy, and cross-border litigation necessitates an unprecedented degree of precision in legal translation. Unlike general translation, legal translation demands functional invariance to ensure that statutory obligations remain identical across different language systems. This paper explores the processes, challenges, and linguistic imperatives of standardization and unification in legal translation, focusing on the linguistic trajectory between English and Uzbek. While standardization aims to stabilize terminology within a single language, unification seeks to harmonize conceptual frameworks across different legal traditions (Common Law vs. Civil Law). Analyzing a selected corpus of bilateral treaties, corporate contracts, and statutory codes, this study examines the structural and semantic friction generated by unsystematic terminological variation. The findings indicate that arbitrary translations of compound legal terms severely undermine legal certainty. The paper outlines a systemic model for building unified, context-controlled bilingual digital glossaries and proposes a standardized framework for trans-regional legal communication.