Legislative Drafting Guidelines | Legislative Drafting Guidelines | Linguistic Aspects (4-8)
Guideline 7 Structure of Legislative Acts... Structure of Legislative Acts (9-22)

Guideline 8

When an Act is expressed in different official languages, all language versions must be identical in structure and substantive meaning.

8.1. Each language version of an Act should be in correct grammatical language.

Commentary

When providing different language versions of an Act, each version should cover the whole Act, and all terms in the Act should be appropriately translated. You should not assume that the person reading one language version also has access to the other language versions.
8.2. The structure of an Act must be the same in each language version with regard to both basic-units and their subdivisions, and with regard to the grouping of those basic-units into higher-divisions (see Guideline 18).

Example A

If the Act is expressed in English and in French, the English version of the Act should have the same structure as the French version.  If the English version has a basic-unit 193(g), the French version should also have a basic-unit 193(g), with the same content.
8.3. The overriding need for identity of substantive meaning in all languages may require certain linguistic compromises. Therefore the same syntax is not always necessary, nor possible: one version of a provision may contain a different number of sentences than the other, and a definition present in one language version need not necessarily be reproduced in another if it is not needed.

Example A

If the English version has a basic-unit 193(g) that contains four sentences, the French version should have the same number of sentences, unless using a different number of sentences (e.g. three or five)  is required for having a better French formulation.   In any case, the meaning of the English version of 193(g) and the meaning of the French version of 193(g) should be the same.

Commentary:

One language may have a word that captures the intended meaning precisely, while another language may need several words, or an entire definition, to capture the intended meaning precisely.  If so, the first language may use fewer words or sentences than the second language.

 
Guideline 7 Structure of Legislative Acts... Structure of Legislative Acts (9-22)
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