Abstract: In this paper we study the translation of terms specific to international public procurement law at the level of the European Union (Council of Europe) and of the United Nations. We adopt a comparative and contrastive approach of translations of public procurement documents into Romanian, French and English, establishing the translation challenges and methods. Legal culture has an important role in the translation process, determining the selection of equivalent terms in the target language. We provide examples of terms belonging to this legal subfield and we analyze their translation in various contexts. We conclude that several translation solutions may be adopted; sometimes, they are different in each target language. In addition, certain terms have a more coercive meaning in Romanian by comparison to their English and French equivalents.

Key words: legal translation, translation at UN/EU level, translation difficulties, translation techniques