Technology Resources for Arbitration Practitioners - Translation and interpretation

Translation of documents is critical in international arbitration, both in connection with the review of large volumes of documents in multiple languages that must be translated within short timelines before they can be reviewed and/or produced, and for presenting documents to a tribunal or opposing party in the designated language of the arbitration.

Advances in AI applied to language have resulted in sophisticated machine translation applications that can significantly reduce the cost and time of manual (vendor-based) translation.

Machine translation is particularly helpful during the first stage of document review, where the reviewer needs to understand the gist of large volumes of documents in another language but does not necessarily need a full edited professional translation of the document. Machine translation can be paired with post-translation human editing to reduce costs, prevent errors, enhance formatting and improve consistency. Below are a few examples of vendors that offer translation services.

Disclaimer: Due to the very nature and dynamics of the subject of this guide, the examples should not be considered exhaustive, and merely represent a sample of the potential applications available. There are numerous other vendors that provide similar services and products to the ones described, and the presence of any particular vendor or product in this guide does not reflect any qualitative judgment about the suitability or capability of that vendor or product. The goal is to periodically update and edit the guide to reflect new technological advances, and add new or delete obsolete, applications, programs or vendors. The IBA Arb40 Subcommittee does not endorse or recommend any particular technology, vendor, software or program listed below, nor can it vouch for the security, cost or appropriateness of any of the listed technology, which must be assessed by practitioners on a case-by-case basis. The descriptions of particular programs, software and vendors were not provided by the vendors themselves, and the IBA Arb40 Subcommittee takes no responsibility for errors in those descriptions. All technology should be thoroughly explored and vetted by the arbitration practitioner prior to use.