Abstract
This study presents a comparative analysis of English and Uzbek legal terminology within the framework of legal globalisation. Using a comparative method, it examines key terms drawn from international treaties and national legislation (e.g., “refugee”, “due diligence”, “jurisdiction”, “arbitration”), focusing on their adaptation and use in practice. The analysis highlights systemic differences: English terminology, shaped by common law and enriched with Latin borrowings, is concise and context-dependent, while Uzbek terminology, rooted in continental law, often relies on descriptive constructions and statutory rigidity. Three categories of terminological relationships are identified: direct equivalents (“arbitration” (арбитраж)), partial equivalents requiring cultural adaptation (“due diligence” (тегишли текширув)), and non-equivalent terms requiring explanatory translation (habeas corpus). Findings reveal that English increasingly influences Uzbek legal practice, but borrowing without contextualisation can lead to semantic distortion. The study also underscores the role of international organisations (e.g., UN, ICC) in promoting terminological standardisation. By documenting patterns of equivalence and divergence, this research provides both theoretical insights and practical implications for legal translators, comparative lawyers, and policymakers. It demonstrates that effective legal translation requires not only linguistic competence but also an understanding of distinct legal traditions and institutional frameworks.
References
Ahn, J. (2024). Assessing Korean Children’s Understanding of Legal Terms and Roles across Age Groups. Communications of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 11, Article 347.
An, J., & Sun, J. (2022). Translation Strategy for Legal Terms with Chinese Characteristics in the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China based on Skopos Theory. PLoS ONE, 17(9), Article e0273944.
Canfield, M. S., Dehm, J., & Fassi, M. (2021). Translocal Laws: Local Encounters with Transnational Law. Transnational Legal Theory, 12(3), 335-359.
Chromá, M. (2011). Synonymy and Polysemy in Legal Terminology and their Application to Bilingual and Bilingual Translation. Language Research, 9(1), 31-50.
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. (1948). https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/assets/treaties/357-IHL-51-EN.pdf
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. (1951). https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-relating-status-refugees
Doszhan, R. (2023). Multi-vector cultural connection in the conditions of modern globalisation. Interdisciplinary Cultural and Humanities Review, 2(1), 27-32.
Dugard, J. (2023). The Choice Before Us: International Law or a ‘Rules-Based International Order’? Leiden Journal of International Law, 36(2), 223-232.
Gathii, J. T. (2021). The Promise of International Law: A Third World View. American University International Law Review, 36(3), 377-477.
Giliker, P. (2021). Codification, Consolidation, Restatement? How Best to Systemise the Modern Law of Tort. International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 70(2), 271-305.
Glohar, O. (2023). The Concept of Legal Language: What Makes Legal Language “Legal”? International Journal of Legal Semiotics, 36, 1081-1107.
Goddard, C. (2021). Legal Terminology in English: The Challenges of International Contexts. ESP Across Cultures, 18, 105-123.
Goźdź-Roszkowski, S. (2021). Corpus Linguistics in Legal Discourse. International Journal of Legal Semiotics, 34, 1515-1540.
Grushko, S. (2016). Document linguistics of scientific and technical direction in modern applied linguistics. Society. Document. Communication, 1(1), 195-201. https://sdc-journal.com.ua/en/journals/vipusk-1/dokumentna-lingvistika-naukovo-tekhnichnogo-spryamuvannya-u-suchasnomu-prikladnomu-movoznavstvi
Hoff, S. L., & Barboza, G. (2025). Languages, Language, and Linguists: The Study of the Diversity of Languages According to Saussure and Benveniste. Bakhtiniana, 20(1), Article e65692e.
Ikejiaku, B.-V. (2014). International Law is Western Made Global Law: The Perception of Third-World Category. African Journal of Legal Studies, 6(2-3), 337-356.
International Criminal Court. (2021). Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/2024-05/Rome-Statute-eng.pdf
Isakova, S. S., Kusaiynova, Z. A., Kenzhemuratova, S. K., Zhuminova, A. B., Utegulov, O. Z., & Mukhtarullina, A. R. (2018). Worldview within the terms of concepts, sphere of concepts and conceptualization. Analele Universitatii din Craiova - Seria Stiinte Filologice, Lingvistica, 40(1-2), 298-317. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=749222
Issakova, S. S., Kultanbayeva, N. K., Tukhtarova, A. S., Zhetessova, Z. A., & Kartzhan, N. Ye. (2023). Linguocultural Analysis of Ethnic Stereotypes in Humorous Discourse: A Comparative Analysis. Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 9(3), 33-47.
Jiao, J. (2024). Theoretical and applied aspects of modern linguoculturology based on intercultural communication. Dragoman, 14(16), 171-193.
Kothalawala, C., Kothalawala, T., & Pereira, S. S. (2022). Differences in the Lexico-grammatical Features of Legal Letters of Demand Written by Lawyers and Students. Sri Lanka Journal of Education, 1(2), 41-57.
Krish, N. (2021). The Dynamics of International Law Redux. Current Legal Problems, 74(1), 269-297.
Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”. (1998). https://lex.uz/docs/4830084
Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. LRU-518 “On International Treaties of the Republic of Uzbekistan”. (2018). https://lex.uz/docs/4830084
Lychuk, M. (2021). Markers-Identifiers of English Language International Legal Discourse. International Journal of Philology, 25(3), 21-25.
Marcos, H. (2023). From Fragmented Legal Order to Globalised Legal System: Towards a Framework of General Principles for the Consistency of International Law. Athena: Critical Inquiries in Law, Philosophy and Globalization, 3(1), 90-124.
Marelli, M. (2023). The Law and Practice of the Interaction of International Organizations with Domestic Regulation of Personal Data Protection: At the Crossroads of International and Domestic Legal Order. Computer Law & Security Review, 50, Article 105849.
Oliveira, É. M. D. (2024). The Sociolinguistic Interview Genre and Its Chronotopic Dimensions. Bakhtiniana, 19(4), Article e64132e.
Palekha, Y., & Alieksieienko, K. (2022). “Narrow and wide” definition of the term “document”. Society. Document. Communication, 7(1), 100-115.
Petretta, I. (2020). The Question of Comparison. American Journal of Comparative Law, 68(4), 893-928.
Pham, N., Pham, L., & Meyers, A. (2021). Legal Terminology Extraction with the Termolator. Natural Legal Language Processing Workshop 2021, 155-162.
Pozhar, A., & Yemets, N. (2021). Model of Translation of International Legal Discourse: To the Problem of Applying the Transformation Model and the Model of the Reference Set Of. International Journal of Philology, 25(4), 35-39.
Pulatova, U. S. K. (2023). Comparative Analysis of Legal Terms in English and Uzbek Languages. European International Journal of Pedagogics, 3(11), 1-3.
Ramos, F. P. (2021). Translating Legal Terminology and Phraseology: Between Inter-Systemic Incongruity and Multilingual Harmonization. Prospects, 29(2), 175-183.
Ramos, F. P., & Cerutti, G. (2021). Terminology as a Source of Difficulty in Translating International Legal Discourses: An Empirical Cross-Genre Study. International Journal of Legal Discourse, 6(2), 155-179.
Riffel, C. (2024). Constitutional Law-Making by International Law: The Indigenization of Free Trade Agreements. European Journal of International Law, 35(2), 445-468.
Rodriguez-Puente, P., & Hernandez-Coalla, D. (2023). The Corpus of Contemporary English Legal Decisions, 1950–-2021 (CoCELD): A New Tool for Analysing Recent Changes in English Legal Discourse. ICAME Journal, 47(1), 109-117.
Security Council Resolution No. 2745 “On Lifting of the Arms Embargo on the Central African Republic, Renewal of other Measures and Extension of the Mandate of the Panel of Experts Established Pursuant to Resolution 2127 (2013)”. (2024). https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4055582?ln=en&v=pdf
Security Council Resolution No. 2751 “On Extension of the Mandate of the Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti”. (2024). https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4062838?ln=en&v=pdf#files
Shaffer, G. H., & Terence, C. (2021). International Law and Transnational Legal Orders: Permeating Boundaries and Extending Social Science Encounters. Chicago Journal of International Law, 22(1), Article 15.
Shahribonu, S. (2022). Teaching Legal Terms in English and Learning their Functions and Placements in a Sentence, Compared with Uzbek. Journal of Medicine, 3(1), 104-110.
Shakun, N., & Yaremenko, N. (2023). Essential and structural aspects of the basic problem competences of future translators. Humanities Studios: Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy, 11(3), 137-142.
Strilets, V. (2021). Application of corpus technologies in teaching specialized translation. Humanities Studios: Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy, 9(4), 48-52.
Tin, S. (2021). Community Interest and the International Public Legal Order. Netherlands International Law Review, 68, 35-59.
Tukhtarova, A. S., Issakova, S. S., Kussaiynova, Z. A., Kenzhemuratova, S. K., & Nassyritdinova, A. N. (2021). Linguocultural approach to audiovisual translation on the example of “game of thrones”. International Journal of Society Culture and Language, 9(3), 49-63. https://www.ijscl.com/article_246221.html
Tuleeva, C. (2025). Phonetic Interference in The Intercultural Communication Environment (Linguo-Methodological Aspect). Dragoman, 2025(18), 144-166.
United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. (1980). https://uncitral.un.org/en/texts/salegoods/conventions/sale_of_goods/cisg.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (1948). https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights.
Valcke, C. (2019). Comparing Legal Styles. International Journal of Law in Context, 15(3), 274-296.
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. (1969). https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/6bfcd4/pdf/.
Voulgaris, N. (2022). The International Law Commission and Politics: Taking the Science Out of International Law’s Progressive Development. European Journal of International Law, 33(3), 761-788.
Warrouw, A. (2021). Fundamental Changes of International Economic Law: Challenges Toward Legal System Based on Fairness and Human Values. Indonesian Journal of International Law, 7(1), 41-65.
Wood, M. (2022). A Lexico-Grammatical Comparison of Statutory Law and Popular Written Language. Research in Corpus Linguistics, 10(2), 16-45.
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Ugilkhon Pulatova, Nodirakhon Pulatova, Iroda Umarova, Sarbinaz Rasbergenova, Shiyrinay Allashova

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
When submitting a paper the author agrees to the following publishing agreement and processing personal data.
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT, COPYRIGHT LICENSE, PERSONAL DATA PROCESSING CONSENT
This is a publication agreement and copyright license (“Agreement”) regarding a written manuscript currently submitted via Pressto platform
(“Article”) to be published in Comparative Legilinguistics International Journal for Legal Communication (“Journal”).
The parties to this Agreement are:
the Author or Authors of the submitted article (individually, or if more than one author, collectively, “Author”) and Comparative Legilinguistics International Journal for Legal Communication (“Publisher”), address al. Niepodległości 4, 61-874 Poznań, represented by its editor in chief Aleksandra Matulewska.
§1. LICENSE OF COPYRIGHT
a) The Author and the Publisher agree that the Author grants a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which is incorporated herein by reference and is further specified at Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 copyright license in the Article to the general public.
b) The Author grants to the Publisher a royalty-free, worldwide nonexclusive license to publish, reproduce, display, distribute, translate and use the Article in any form, either separately or as part of a collective work, including but not limited to a nonexclusive license to publish the Article in an issue of the Journal, copy and distribute individual reprints of the Article, authorize reproduction of the entire Article in another publication, and authorize reproduction and distribution of the Article or an abstract thereof by means of computerized retrieval systems (such as Westlaw, Lexis and SSRN). The Author retains ownership of all rights under copyright in the Article, and all rights not expressly granted in this Agreement.
c) The Author grants to the Publisher the power to assign, sublicense or otherwise transfer any and all licenses expressly granted to the Publisher under this Agreement.
d) Republication. The Author agrees to require that the Publisher be given credit as the original publisher in any republication of the Article authorized by the Author. If the Publisher authorizes any other party to republish the Article under the terms of paragraphs 1c and 1 of this Agreement, the Publisher shall require such party to ensure that the Author is credited as the Author.
§2. EDITING OF THE ARTICLE
a) The Author agrees that the Publisher may edit the Article as suitable for publication in the Journal. To the extent that the Publisher’s edits amount to copyrightable works of authorship, the Publisher hereby assigns all right, title, and interest in such edits to the Author.
§3. WARRANTIES
a) The Author represents and warrants that to the best of the Author’s knowledge the Article does not defame any person, does not invade the privacy of any person, and does not in any other manner infringe upon the rights of any person. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Publisher against all such claims.
b) The Author represents and warrants that the Author has full power and authority to enter into this Agreement and to grant the licenses granted in this Agreement.
c) The Author represents and warrants that the Article furnished to the Publisher has not been published previously. For purposes of this paragraph, making a copy of the Article accessible over the Internet, including, but not limited to, posting the Article to a database accessible over the Internet, does not constitute prior publication so long as the as such copy indicates that the Article is not in final form, such as by designating such copy to be a “draft,” a “working paper,” or “work-in-progress”. The Author agrees to hold harmless the Publisher, its licensees and distributees, from any claim, action, or proceeding alleging facts that constitute a breach of any warranty enumerated in this paragraph.
§4. TERM
a) The agreement was concluded for an unspecified time.
§5. PAYMENT
a) The Author agrees and acknowledges that the Author will receive no payment from the Publisher for use of the Article or the licenses granted in this Agreement.
b) The Publisher agrees and acknowledges that the Publisher will not receive any payment from the Author for publication by the Publisher.
§6. ENTIRE AGREEMENT
a) This Agreement supersedes any and all other agreements, either oral or in writing, between the Author and the Publisher with respect to the subject of this Agreement. This Agreement contains all of the warranties and agreements between the parties with respect to the Article, and each party acknowledges that no representations, inducements, promises, or agreements have been made by or on behalf of any party except those warranties and agreements embodied in this Agreement.
b) In all cases not regulated by this Agreement, legal provisions of Polish Copyright Act and Polish Civil Code shall apply.
c) Any disputes arising from the enforcement of obligations connected with this Agreement shall be resolved by a court competent for the headquarters of the Publisher.
d) Any amendments or additions to the Agreement must be made in writing and signed by authorised representative of both parties, otherwise being ineffective.
e) This Agreement is signed electronically and the submission of the article via the PRESSto platform is considered as the conclusion of the Agreement by the Author and the Publisher.
f) Clause for consent to the processing of personal data - general
g) The Author shall give his or her consent to the processing of their personal data in accordance with the Act of 10 May 2018 on the protection of personal data and Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of persons physical in connection with the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46 / EC (General Data Protection Regulation) for the purpose and in connection with making publications available on the PRESSto scientific journals platform and DeGruyter platform, guaranteeing the security of services rendered, and improving them.
I HAVE READ AND AGREE FULLY WITH THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT.
The Author The Publisher
