Pragmatic Aspects of Legal Translation in the European Institutions

This paper aims at identifying and describing the current major pragmatic issues of legal translation in the context of the EU. There some facts that provide legal translation in this context with unique features, such as the binding nature of EU law for the 28 Member States and the authenticated versions of the normative acts adopted by the EU institutions. These features have led to several authors talking about a new type of legal translation that should be approached and studied independently. We aim at identifying the reasons for this as well as describing the major translation strategies and theoretical approaches that the authors have proposed in order to help EU translators and lawyerlinguists overcome the translation problems arising from divergences of legal systems and legal traditions within the Member States.

Lies and Camouflage

Collaborative installation of painting and sculpture with Denise de Cordova. Both artists use a female subject as a recurring metaphor – as cipher, ghost, or nom de plume, and both employ intricately decorated surfaces to allude to ambiguities inherent in using material to speak of ideas.

New Directions in Commercial Secrecy and Encryption Protocols

Secure transmission of bulk data is of interest to many content providers. A commercially-viable distribution of content requires technology to prevent unauthorised access. Encryption tools are powerful, but have a performance cost. Without encryption, intercepted data may be illicitly duplicated and re-sold, or its commercial value diminished because its secrecy is lost. Two technical solutions make it possible to perform bulk transmissions while retaining security without too high a performance overhead. These are: 1. a) hierarchical encryption - the stronger the encryption, the harder it is to break but also the more computationally expensive it is. A hierarchical approach to key exchange means that simple and relatively weak encryption and keys are used to encrypt small chunks of data, for example 10 seconds of video. Each chunk has its own key. New keys for this bottom-level encryption are exchanged using a slightly stronger encryption, for example a whole-video key could govern the exchange of the 10-second chunk keys. At a higher level again, there could be daily or weekly keys, securing the exchange of whole-video keys, and at a yet higher level, a subscriber key could govern the exchange of weekly keys. At higher levels, the encryption becomes stronger but is used less frequently, so that the overall computational cost is minimal. The main observation is that the value of each encrypted item determines the strength of the key used to secure it. 2. b) non-symbolic fragmentation with signal diversity - communications are usually assumed to be sent over a single communications medium, and the data to have been encrypted and/or partitioned in whole-symbol packets. Network and path diversity break up a file or data stream into fragments which are then sent over many different channels, either in the same network or different networks. For example, a message could be transmitted partly over the phone network and partly via satellite. While TCP/IP does a similar thing in sending different packets over different paths, this is done for load-balancing purposes and is invisible to the end application. Network and path diversity deliberately introduce the same principle as a secure communications mechanism - an eavesdropper would need to intercept not just one transmission path but all paths used. Non-symbolic fragmentation of data is also introduced to further confuse any intercepted stream of data. This involves breaking up data into bit strings which are subsequently disordered prior to transmission. Even if all transmissions were intercepted, the cryptanalyst still needs to determine fragment boundaries and correctly order them. These two solutions depart from the usual idea of data encryption. Hierarchical encryption is an extension of the combined encryption of systems such as PGP but with the distinction that the strength of encryption at each level is determined by the "value" of the data being transmitted. Non- symbolic fragmentation suppresses or destroys bit patterns in the transmitted data in what is essentially a bit-level transposition cipher but with unpredictable irregularly-sized fragments. Both technologies have applications outside the commercial and can be used in conjunction with other forms of encryption, being functionally orthogonal.

Coiled armrings: an Hiberno-Viking silver arm-ring type

The purpose of this paper is to isolate and discuss a distinctive type of Hiberno-Viking silver armring. Here termed the 'coiled armring', it is dated to the late ninth/early tenth centuries. The methods of manufacture, ornamentation, date and origins of the type are discussed and the objects are assessed against the background of hoard-associated material and related types of silver armrings. A descriptive catalogue of the material is provided.

Simplificação de processos com cartão de cidadão

Na sociedade moderna, o uso de novas tecnologias e das correspondentes aplicações informáticas, levanta diversas questões, sendo, sem dúvida a mais importante, a segurança dos utilizadores e dos sistemas. A implementação de novos processos fazendo uso dos meios informáticos disponíveis permite o aumento da produtividade e a sua simplificação sem perder a fiabilidade, através da desmaterialização, desburocratização, acessibilidade, rapidez de execução, comodidade e segurança. A introdução do cartão de cidadão com todas a sua potencialidade contribui para a implementação dos processos acima referidos, os quais acompanharam a evolução do quadro legislativo nacional e europeu. Contudo verificam-se algumas lacunas, devido à sua imaturidade, sendo o seu desenvolvimento um processo ainda em curso. Com o presente trabalho pretende-se criar uma solução aberta a várias aplicações, que permite a optimização de processos através da sua simplificação, com recurso à assinatura digital, autenticação e uso de dados pessoais, tendo em atenção a legislação vigente, o actual cartão de cidadão e os requisitos de segurança. ABSTRACT: ln modern society, the increasing application of information technologies have arisen several questions, being the private and sensitive data security the most important. Today new informatics processes have come to increase productivity using faster and simplified mechanisms, keeping reliability and security. The introduction in Portugal, of the new citizen card is a great example of the above mentioned, in accordance with the National and European legislation. Nevertheless, being recently adopted, it stills vulnerable and therefore is in constant update and revision. The purpose of this thesis is the creation of an open solution to other new applications, aiming a simplification and optimization of citizen card. Seeking the maximum security, it is utilized digital signature, authentication and personal details, always according to the legislation in effect.