Background

The RICCI Association is an association which has already published the Dictionnaire des Caractères Singuliers [The Dictionary of Individual Characters], the Grand Dictionnaire in French of the Chinese language (“Grand Ricci”), and the Aperçus de Civilisation Chinoise [Survey of Chinese Civilization] based on the data in the Grand Ricci which was the product of more than 40 years of work, as well as the Ricci Dictionary of Chinese Plants in 2005.

The Ricci Legal Dictionary is a project that was launched in 2005 by French and Chinese teams and consists of preparing French- English – Chinese lexicon of law.

All of the domains of Chinese law will be covered by this work on the basis of using terms taken from the principal Chinese legal texts, the existing Chinese-Chinese legal dictionaries, the database of the Grand Ricci, and other Chinese–English dictionaries. The Chinese terms and expressions translated into French will be indexed into some twenty branches of the law. Some 20,000 terms and expressions of Chinese law will be translated and, where applicable, explained in French, and will likewise be translated into an English version.

The RICCI Association has been seeking partners to support its planned publication of the Ricci Dictionary of Chinese law.

The objective

To introduce, by means of translation, the terms of the civil law to the Chinese legal vocabulary.

To support the creation of a group of expert translators who will be available for other projects within the framework of the Fondation’s program in China.

To provide an excellent tool for future translations..

The means

The Fondation pour le droit continental has decided to link up with this project for the publication and the promotional activities of the dictionary.

The prospects

This work, which will be published by Editions du Cerf and disseminated in France and abroad, should for some years be the leading Chinese-French legal dictionary and be used by numerous jurists and academics working with Chinese law. The translation of Chinese terms into English should likewise ensure that it has a far broader dissemination than that of an exclusively Chinese - French dictionary and it will highlight French legal terminology.

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