English Tips for Spanish Lawyers (ii) "referred"

 

By Nick Potter

Here’s the second in a series looking at real-life examples of the most common mistakes in English by native Spanish lawyers (even if they don’t admit it). These and a whole host of other invaluable tips are available in a new e-book and paperback, 50 English Tips for Spanish Professionals.

referred

Legal work involves a lot of referring. Courts refer cases to other courts. Judges and lawyers refer to precedents to support their arguments. If you have to refer to, say, the sadly repealed German law on beef labelling called

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz,

you might want to refer to it as “the Act”. 

Referir in Spanish is not a false friend – it means refer in English.

So why is the word referido the cause of so many mistakes?

The reason is that whatever the reference, there’s a little word you mustn’t forget.

Question: Which ONE of A – F below is correct?

A	The Syndicated Facility Agreement and the Additional Facility Agreement will be jointly referred hereinafter as the “Loans”
B	This does not apply to the Condition Precedent referred in section 2.1(ii) above
C	The questions referred to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling can be found here
D	All confidential information referred to the SGIIC and to its customers must be protected
E	The shares that each Minority Shareholder will be obliged to transfer as a result of the exercise of the drag-along right according to the referred stake of each Shareholder
F	After the referred capital increase, the Company’s share capital will be EUR[●]

§  Before you read the answer, remember:

In Spanish, referido is commonly used to mean referred to or mentioned e.g. el documento referido en tu correo electrónico.

As in the Spanish hacer referencia a, in English we make reference or refer to something. Even when using the past participle (referred), you must include the preposition “to”:

Ø  Regarding the documents you refer to in your email…

Ø  He is the director referred to in the report (some would have you say, “the director to which the report refers” – still using “to” of course)

Just to keep you on your toes, in sentences that contain referidos a, this does not usually translate as referred to, but relating to (i.e. in relation with):

Ø  An agreement relating to the period until closing (un acuerdo referido al periodo hasta el cierre)

In Spanish, referido can also be used as an adjective, e.g. la referida mayoría.

Referred in English cannot be used as an adjective. Here, the best translation is usually related or relevant e.g. the relevant majority.

In English, to refer can also mean to pass a matter to a higher body for a decision (remitir in Spanish).

§  So:

In A and B, referido in Spanish meant mentioned or referred to:

A	The Syndicated Facility Agreement and the Additional Facility Agreement will be jointly referred to hereinafter as the “Loans”
B	This does not apply to the Condition Precedent referred to in section 2.1(ii) above

C was the only correct sentence. Here referred means passed to a higher body for a decision.

C	The questions referred to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling can be found here [CORRECT]

In D, referido a in Spanish was closer to the English meaning of in relation with / relating to.

D	All confidential information referred relating to the SGIIC and to its customers must be protected

In E and F, referido as an adjective can be translated as relevant.

E	The shares that each Minority Shareholder will be obliged to transfer as a result of the exercise of the drag-along right according to the referred relevant stake of each Shareholder
F	After the referred relevant capital increase, the Company’s share capital will be EUR[●]

As for the meaning of relevant, we’ll look at that next t…