Author: dc

Masculine noun. In Legal Spanish arresto is a provisional detention of the accused in a criminal matter or a deprivation of liberty for a short time, as a correction or penalty. E.g.: El arresto del sospechoso salió en las noticias: The detention of the suspect was on the news.
The verb is arrestar: to make an arrest. dc

Verb. This is another Spanish word with no possible direct translation into English. Cobrar means to receive money as payment of a debt or something else. E.g.: La Comisión autoriza entonces al Banco a cobrar los importes correspondientes del Fondo de garantía: The Commission will then authorise the Bank to take the corresponding amounts from the Guarantee Fund. The noun is el cobro.
It is an interesting word, I wonder if it comes from cobre, the Spanish for copper. dc

Feminine noun. In Legal and Business Spanish, cuota can mean three main things: 1. Fixed and proportional part or portion. E.g.: La cuota de mercado de la compañía ha crecido radicalmente: The company’s market share has risen dramatically. 2. Amount that is paid regularly to associations, communities, social security, etc. E.g.: Muchos juegos son gratuitos y otros pueden descargarse pagando una cuota: Many games are free, and you can download others for a fee. 3. Instalment. E.g.: Él había pagado cada cuota de su préstamo: He had paid every instalment of his loan. dc

Verb. This term doesn’t have an exact translation into English. It means to start a conversation, battle, friendship. As you can see, it is an inchoative verb, all the focus is on a beginning. It is very much used in Legal and Business contexts as to arrange, prepare, undertake a claim or a business. E.g.: En este caso se decidió no entablar acción penal, por falta de pruebas: In this case, a decision against initiating criminal proceedings was handed down on grounds of lack of evidence of a crime.
By the way, entablar also means to plank something, as a tabla is a plank. dc

Masculine noun. Imperio de la Ley refers to the primacy of law over any other governmental principle, especially against tyranny and arbitrariness of political power, even if well-intentioned. In a sense, the concept of Impeio de la Ley is similar to the Hellenic concept nomos basileus (‘the law is the king ‘) or the Anglo-Saxon rule of law. E.g.: Ello debe hacerse sin selectividad ni supremacía y sobre la base del imperio de la ley: That needs to be done without selectivity or supremacy and based on the rule of law. dc

Feminine noun. Seguridad Jurídica is a universally recognized principle of law, which is based on the “certainty of the law”, both in the field of its publicity and in its application, and which means the certainty that it is known, or can be known, what foreseen as prohibited, ordered or allowed by the public power. E.g.: Esta propuesta, sin duda imperfecta, habría aportado seguridad jurídica y estabilidad a un sector en pleno auge: This proposal, while admittedly imperfect, would have brought legal certainty and stability to a booming sector. dc