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I usually use as many tags as possible on a question to circumscribe the focus at the conjunction of these tags. However, there tends to be a main idea that is captured by one, and subscribers to other tags could find the topic barely irrelevant. So I am ultimately unsure if my aim at precission will be perceived as rather greedy attention grabbing.


This is a general problem on the stack, yet I have to be concerned in particular because I'm coming from German Law and trying to shoehorn the question in fulfillment of the requirements of this site's naturally being English language focused. Language history is my hobby horse also on other stacks, hence legal-terms is my main focus.

Now I could suffice to ask for a translation into English, noting that such a question would be eligible on German.SE where it is likely too specific to receive an answer. I am asking here instead, in the hope that somebody will give advice towards a good question. I admit that this is bending the rules and rather silly because a source on the German terms will be in German language in the most likely event and not comparative, which would satisfy my curiosity already.

legal-history seems appropriate, nevertheless, stipulating that the term in question could be related to a common background. The potential (so far hypothetical) comparison would be an added benefit for the stack. I am not sure if this too much. On the other hand, the history seems to be largely irrelevant to modern usage, as it describes literally obvious to anyone judgement from common sense.

However, if there is a felicit translation, its English history in common law and beyond should be interesting.

international is the most likely context to yield to question of translation, given that English is one of the standard languages of EU.

constitutional-law is tangentially relevant, as is statutory-interpretation because the term in question is frequently mentioned in interpretation but is missing an interpretation itself. It seems to be concerned with rules-of-court because it determines whether an appeal may proceed.

In sum, I want to ask about the origin of a quasi legal term in German law first of all and its typological and genetic comparison in English second. Ideally I would supply the German side of things. As far as I have nothing but a surface analysis, the English side is on-topic while the German side may be considered supplemental information.

Is this set-up too broad or, at the same time, in a narrow sense just too specific and thus off-topic?

By the way, to err on the side of caution, I'm choosing the least specific tag I could find here on meta, discussion. Please edit it as you see fit.

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Go ahead and post the question and add the tags you think might be relevant. It's OK to err on the side of overtagging. If tags are truly excessive or inapplicable somebody will edit them out.

Using the native language of the law or legal concept is fine where relevant; we have plenty of Q&A that quote German law in German.

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