In the Oxford Handbook of Translation Studies, Leon Wolff, an Associate Professor of Law at Bond University concisely defines legal translations like this:

»The purpose of legal translation is to create a text that will be interpreted in the same way by legal professionals in the target legal system, as it would be in the original legal system.«

For the legal translator an awareness of legal systems of both the source and the target languages is required. Successful legal translations aim to be literate rather than literal.