Globalization and integration is an inevitable trend in today’s world. Any country that rejects this trend will soon be lagged behind in all major fields of social life. But communication is successful only when the participants can understand each other. This cannot be achieved if nations with different languages never try to understand the language of another. Therefore, the need for translation between languages is greater than ever before. And because English is an accepted contemporary international language, more and more documents in other languages are being translated into it. These are documents of all fields: politics, economics, culture, etc. But when can a translation be considered ‘good’ still draws much discussion. Translation theorists have their own founded criteria for translation quality assessment. Among distinguished scholars of this field is Julian House, a German linguist, with her model for translation quality assessment.
On its route to international economic integration, Vietnam has to make many new laws as objectively required. Laws in Vietnamese obviously have legal validity. But reliable English versions of these laws are desirable to foreign investors before and on coming to do business in Vietnam. Though these English versions do not have legal value, they should facilitate the process of understanding and obeying Vietnam’s laws of foreign enterprises. A good translation of a legal document will mitigate misinterpretations and misapplications.
Of the most recently enacted laws in Vietnam, the Law on Investment of 2005, number 59/2005/QH11 is one that has received much attention and discussion. The Law has been translated into English by several translators. An assessment of the English version of this law is thus desirable.
