nevipaul Oct 15, 2010:

Not-for-profit corporations are "non-stock corporations". Wouldn't that qualify? Sorry if I'm being dim here - it's not my area!

Dave Bindon Oct 15, 2010:

Ahhh, if we'd talked about the opposite "For-profit Civil Partnership" we would probably get sued by many famous couples! I'm still not sure that there is AN answer, but I'm very honoured to have had this discussion with people who obviously do care about translation.

Nick Lingris Oct 15, 2010:

I think that, in the asker's non-legal context, NPO would do the job. (You are right, let's not have the director participate in a non-profit civil partnership :) ) And there is enough analysis here for anyone to make up their mind as to any legal context.

Dave Bindon Oct 15, 2010:

For use in *some* circumstances, how about "Civil Non-Profit Partnership" as used here: http://www.q-citiesnet.eu/zip_files/Statute Final.pdf
? But I think that that translation suits official documents far better than it suits the context of the asker's question.

Dave Bindon Oct 15, 2010:

I'd happily use almost anything that avoids "civil partnership" (and Nick has suggested some alternatives). I don't think I could go with 'corporation' however, as this word has a legal definition which is different from the AMKE set-up. See: http://www.investorwords.com/1140/corporation.html where it says that corporations issue shares.

nevipaul Oct 15, 2010:

Is there any reason why we can't use "corporation" rather than "partnership", thus gettting over the confusion? e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not-for-profit_corporation

Nick Lingris Oct 15, 2010:

There are a number of alternatives around, such as: nonprofit civil law organization http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2003/24411.htm or nonprofit civil law firm etc., trying to avoid use of "partnership" for the obvious reasons.

Dave Bindon Oct 15, 2010:

Very inconvenient for us translators that the UK government didn't check to see if "Civil Partnership" was already in use as a translation of a foreign legal concept!
From what I can gather (e.g. the link I gave to the Greek law site giving a template for the drafting of deed setting up an AMKE) I feel fairly sure that an AMKE is an NPO, but that NPO is a broader term i.e. not all NPOs are AMKEs. In this context, I think it's the concept of "not-for-profit" that the reader needs to understand immediately, and not the specifics of what sort of organization it is under Greek law. Of course, if anyone can suggest a translation that is more specific but still easily understood by an English-speaking reader, then that is what I'd use.

Nick Lingris Oct 15, 2010:

I suppose that any reader of texts on foreign laws realises that you cannot understand the content of the law from the translation used for it. "Civil partnership" has been used for many years in English books about Greek law (including Introduction to Greek Law, http://www.kluwerlaw.com/Catalogue/titleinfo.htm?ProdID=9041... first published in 1988). I don't know whether they have been tempted to change the translation to avoid mixups, though, as you say, context immediately makes it clear (as seen in the examples from books). I have been told AMKEs are different from NPOs but I wouldn't presume to be able to describe the differences :)

Dave Bindon Oct 15, 2010:

Yes, I was actually about to ask you what you would do in the case of legal translations where precision is required. I suppose the context would make it clear, and the target audience would be more familiar with the meaning of the term in Company Law.
In general terms, though, what would you say are the differences between an NPO and an AMKE?
Incidentally, I've just found the following article which discusses the difficulty of translating legal terms, and mentions 'civil partnerships' and how misleading the term is. http://www.translationdirectory.com/article1185.htm

Nick Lingris Oct 15, 2010:

I suppose in some general description aimed at Anglo-Saxons, a simple NPO would do the job. However, because entries here are often used by legal translators and an AMKE is not the same as an NPO, we should not laugh at the particularities of local systems. Or that would make recently published books such as this (2009) laughable. http://books.google.com/books?id=li4Uc8j1mx4C&dq="civil part... Those hesitant can always use "civil law partnership".

Dave Bindon Oct 15, 2010:

We've got our legs crossed? hehe Whilst there is no doubt that "Civil Partnership" is a good, literal translation of αστική εταιρεία, the Anglosaxon world has a completely different interpretation of the term, and trying to use it in any other context would just lead to confusion (and a bit of laughter). Personally, I quite like the idea of a "Non-profit Gay Marriage" (which is how we'd say Non-Profit Civil Partnership if we weren't being PC!).