Abstract: The Court of Justice of the European Union ensures the uniform interpretation and application of EU law in all Member States so that all citizens may benefit from its protection. This mission is undertaken by the Union’s two courts, namely the Court of Justice and the General Court. Any of the 24 official languages of the Union may be used before the Court, the Court having its documents translated by translation services composed of lawyer-linguists. Decisions are published in all the official languages, thereby allowing access to justice for all citizens. Endowed with a double professional competence, the lawyer-linguists actively intervene in the translation process, performing legal and terminological analyses in collaboration with other services of the Court. Their role in the functioning of the Court is all the more important as the translation of its official documents allows the communication between the courts of the Member States, raises awareness of EU case law, and enables the development of EU case law and of comparative law.

Key words: lawyer-linguist, multilingualism, legal translation, language of the case, source language, target language, preliminary reference, judgment