“Yes, your Honor/ Sì, Vostro Onore". Legal dramas, the popularisation of legal discourse, and dubbing

Despite their popularity, there is little research on the popularisation strategies used in legal dramas to convey complex legal concepts to viewers. Moreover, the translation of such audiovisual products is also relatively under-researched. This paper presents a qualitative study investigating the popularisation strategies employed in The Good Wife (a US legal drama) and the translation strategies used in the Italian dubbed version. The English dialogues of twelve episodes were transcribed along with their matching Italian dubbed dialogues and the relevant legal references were extracted from the two versions. Interesting patterns in the use of popularisation strategies have emerged. When lay people interact with legal professionals on screen, several types of popularisation strategies are used, as they are aimed at both the lay characters and the audience. By contrast, in scenes involving two legal professionals it would not be realistic to include too many explanations. As regards translation, the key principle driving the Italian dubbed version is the need to create plausible-sounding dialogues rather than a legally accurate translation. The findings of this study contribute to research on the characteristics of popularisation discourse in legal dramas and have the potential to be used to inform the training of audiovisual translators.