Professional legal translations of prenuptial agreements by professional legal translators play an important role. A premarital agreement is an agreement between parties contemplating marriage that either alters or confirms the legal rights and obligations that arise in the case of divorce or, sometimes, death. Although prenuptial agreements are widely accepted by U.S. courts – so long as various legal requirements are met – issues arise when a prenuptial agreement was made in a foreign country, or a U.S. prenuptial agreement is brought forth in a foreign country.
The primary issue when attempting to enforce a foreign language prenuptial agreement in the U.S. involves conflict of law issues. According to the law of conflicts, the validity and enforceability of a contract (which a prenuptial agreement is) is determined by the law of the state where the contract was entered into or the state whose laws the agreement specifies will apply when a choice must be made.
Even before one gets to this stage, one must first make several determinations, including whether such an agreement actually constitutes a contract. In order to make this determination a foreign language translation of the agreement must be obtained. And, further, if it is found that a contract does exist, a court will likely require a foreign language translation of the foreign law.