[texhax] (OT) English native speaker needed -- translation problem

[Juergen Fenn]

Am 06.04.11 16:05 schrieb Susan Dittmar:

> Had he used 'ff.', I just would have copied it...
> The original was "§§ 145 ff. BGB", the translation 
> "Arts. 145 following BGB". This felt totally wrong to me, especially as I
> was told---by one who should know---that in German juridical practice
> no collection of laws has "articles" except for the German Constitution.

Depends. I think "section" is more common than "article" here, but I
might by mistaken.

BTW, you might like to refer to the submission guidelines of legal
journals some of which can be found online, e.g. for the German Law
Journal at

  http://germanlawjournal.com/index.php?pageID=3

where it says: "Do not use f., ff., s., or ss" ... You are asked to cite
the first page your quotation starts at only, just as we would do in a
German legal text when it comes to citing an article from a journal or a
section from a book. However, in the case you mentioned I would also
prefer to say: "sections 145ff. BGB".

Caveat: No English speaker, either...

Regards,
Jürgen.