The Proper way to Translate Corporation

This vlog and corresponding blog marks the first in a long series of videos and writings related to corporate law.  Corporate law refers to the body of law that governs the relations, rights, duties, and conduct of individuals and all types of legal/business entities.  The approach I will take in this and all future series is to fuse comparative law and legal translation to, hopefully, give each legal and language enthusiast a solid foundation to better understand the civil and common law systems, the different legal concepts, principles, standards, and values employed by each, so that we can gain a better understanding of the legal language used by and under each system to describe these concepts, principles, standards, and values.  

I will begin this series on corporate law by taking a broad, macro approach and then slowly moving to its many individual parts.  I've therefore decided to start by simply defining what a corporation is under US law and determining whether the same concept exists under Mexican law, and if so, how it is translated.  Many translators I have encountered translate corporation literally--meaning they use the Spanish term corporacion.  However, this is inaccurate.  As I discuss in the video, under US law, the term corporation is used in a stricter sense and refers to a specific type of legal entity, whereas corporacion under Mexican law does not refer to any specific business form but is used more generically to refer to a group or organization.  The legal entity that most closely refers to a US corporation is the sociedad anónima.  Although there are some marked differences between the two entities--for example, a corporation under US law is governed by state law while federal law governs corporations in Mexico--these differences are peripheral in nature and do not alter the essential elements that comprise a corporation and sociedad anonima. 

Our next vlog/blog will discuss other entities, including the sole proprietorship, general and special partnership, and later on, other more recent creations, including the most popular: the limited liability company.