Thread with 6 posts
jump to expanded postthere's something to be said for learning a new language. even one from a relatively similar culture to your own can be enlightening. for example, before learning swedish, i did not realise that “rule of law” is an anglo-american concept. it's not so commonly used in swedish.
sweden's as enlightenment-influenced as anywhere else in europe, so of course that set of values is important here, but different concepts are used to gesture at it: ”rättssäkerhet” (~= legal certainty) and the ”rättsstat” (literally “law state”, in english/german: Rechtsstaat)
you could have a whole “““translation versus localisation””” discourse about these terms because they're not directly translatable, but you can convey approximately the same message via rewriting.
“this is no longer a rechtsstaat” ~= “there is no longer rule of law”
it's not a potato vs potato thing though. the way the words feel and are used is a bit different. i think i hear ”rättssäkerhet” used to criticise problems with government agencies, the law and the court system in sweden as much as in other places. “rule of law” is more dramatic
you could point out that the concept of “legal certainty” does exist in english, and this is true, but i'm not sure it means quite the same thing, and it's not as commonly used. i think it comes up most in the news in translations of stuff eu politicians say… makes you think!
@hikari another datapoint: the concept of "právnà stát" is present in Czech discourse and was a major demand in the velvet revolution when communist totalitariat was dismantled. The wiki page says it's synonymous with "rule of law" as well as "rechtsstaat".