The Madrilenian Legislative Institution ‘Asamblea de Madrid’ and the Scottish Parliament. Contrastive Complexity in (Spanish-English) Specialised Translation

Abstract

This paper explores the contrastive analysis between the ‘Asamblea de Madrid’, the highest institutional body in the Region of Madrid, Spain. Created in 1983, the ‘Asamblea de Madrid’ is one of the most distinguished bodies within the European Union and one of the 17 decentralised regional bodies after the 1978 Spanish Constitution. This legislative power controls 7 million inhabitants (as of March 2025) of the Region of Madrid (referred as ‘Comunidad de Madrid’). This comparison is extended with the Parliament of Scotland. This important institution governs Scotland, one of the most remarkable historical places in Europe. As it happens with Comunidad de Madrid, the Scottish culture, history and importance in the world is undeniable. The Parliament of Scotland is the decision-making institution of more than 5.4 million people.  Both institutions, essential in two important regions in Europe, Comunidad de Madrid and Scotland, with their own cultural, political and powerful idiosyncrasies, will be the main core of this analysis. This will be focused on the phraseology of both ‘chambers’ in order to increase a bidirectional translation of both legal institutions that comprise more than 12 million of inhabitants in both territories. This research is unique for several reasons: firstly, the comparative study of both bodies, important legislative institutions within Europe and the world, has not been conducted until now. In addition to this, this comparative study of these two institutions that belong to two different legal families, the Common Law (English Law) in Scotland and the Continental Law (Civil Law) in Spain, opens a new perspective of Legal Translation in these two important regions of Europe.