Secondly, the bilingual approach of Russian-English and Anglo-Russian legal documents ensures the correct use of terms, quotations, names, formulations of international conventions, publications of the International Chamber of Commerce, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and other organisations that should be mentioned in the documents or whose terminology is used in the agreements. As a rule, contracts, letters, advice, legal opinions, etc., are written in one language and translation into another language is done according to words. It is also possible to prepare bilingual legal texts and documents already written in two languages. Such an approach to foreign trade and business practices can be characterized by several important advantages in terms of the quality of the documents to be produced. If you have a bilingual treaty, perhaps even with contracting parties in different countries, there may be confusion as to which country will govern the entire agreement. In any event, they want to avoid a situation in which one of the parties claims the applicability of its laws because it is more favourable to them or simply more familiar. A clause clarifies the situation will go a long way in avoiding this potentially stressful situation. Last but not least. The end result of bilingual legal services in producing good documents in two languages usually takes less time than for the involvement of two specialists – a lawyer and a translator. Think about how long it usually takes to design and negotiate an English-language business contract for your client – and how much the parties can argue over the inclusion or exclusion of a single word or phrase. In the event that two languages are used and signed by a client, negotiations and issues should address both contractual formats. If the parties sign a contract and it is considered part of their agreement, they should be aware of this; Their ignorance of the foreign language will not be an excuse.
Following my article on the advisability of establishing English-speaking contracts in Austria, I felt like I shared some common problems I encountered in bilingual contracts, especially when they were written by native German speakers. I use it as a checklist in my own contract design process to make sure I avoid these pitfalls. Thirdly, the bilingual method makes it possible to take into account the mentalities of both parties and to use in the documents legal concepts that are understandable to all the parties concerned, which is extremely important for the agreement on their opinions and the successful implementation of international business projects. The equivalent content of versions of documents in different languages still does not mean that they are understood in the same way by both parties to an agreement. In many cases, certain things that are obvious to one party can cause misunderstandings, questions, suspicions, or even aggression from the other.
