BUSIneSS
Publishing
leGAleSe
A new English-language book on Luxembourg’s business law has just come out. Will it help attract more Silicon Valley firms to the Grand Duchy? Interview: Aaron Grunwald — Photo: Luc Deflorenne
Strassen-based Legitech released its first Luxembourg Business Law Book in English last month. Nicolas Henckes, director at the legal and tax publisher, talks to Delano about the unique challenges of translating the Grand Duchy’s laws. AG: Why did you want to publish this guide? NH: We have many clients who are lawyers, accountants and tax specialists, and most of them work with foreigners and foreign investors. So they very often need to translate Luxembourg legislation and case law into English. They lose some time because they have some difficulties finding the right words. Especially in legal matters where you need to be very, very careful how you translate. AG: How do you translate Continental law into English, which has a different legal culture? NH: As usual it’s traduttore, traditore, as they say. But we tried to bridge the gap by showing the methodology that we used and by sticking to a very clear line from the beginning. That’s why we chose, actually, to use US English and specialised legal translators in New York. Our methodology is that whenever we translate a Luxembourg concept, we also put the original version in brackets behind the translation. AG: The original French? NH: In the original language. The General Tax Act is a German law originally. It was introduced by the Germans during the Second World War and still applies here in Luxembourg.
26 - delano - May 2012
nIColaS HenCKeS: US English is more neutral
AG: The Chamber of Deputies never reversed it? NH: It was very useful to raise taxes, so they didn’t change it. The income tax law is now in French, but its main provisions come from the German income tax law. VAT is European. Registration duties have a French origin. Death duties, that’s Belgium and Dutch. We have taken the best tax laws from our neighbours! AG: So, why did you choose legal translators in New York? NH: You already have some translations here and there of some laws, not all of them, but they’re more based on Euro-English and British English. So we didn’t want to compete with these existing translations. We wanted to have something neutral, and also some-
thing open to the world. We have more and more Silicon Valley firms setting up here. So it looked really interesting to bring to these people concepts that they were more familiar with. AG: How much of a market is there for these types of books? NH: There definitely is a demand for English legal documentation, also on taxation, because not everybody in the world speaks French. And the Grand Duchy wants to position itself as an international business place. I wouldn’t say it’s our contribution to the national effort. We are trades-people, we want to make money. But we are following our government’s current policy and we’re trying to do our best to have success within that policy.