Resisting market disorder and ensuring public trust: Reimagining national registers for legal interpreters in the United States and the European Union

Abstract

This article aims to describe the current state of affairs as regards national registers of legal interpreters and translators (LITs) in the United States and the European Union. After a brief overview of what translation and interpreting studies researchers and EU project participants recommend about their construction and utilization, a case will be made for the use of national registers as essential tools in two important struggles: Professionalizing legal translation and interpreting and building public trust. Based on current models and recommendations by researchers, a proposal will be put forth for minimum characteristics of a national register of LITs. Rather than an afterthought, the interpreter register merits scrutiny and careful elaboration precisely because of an ever more ubiquitous need for states and countries to implement measures which are fair, transparent, cost-effective, which guarantee due process, and which provide users with ways to make an objective value judgment regarding the competence of the interpreters they commission.