Category: Business Spanish Courses Online – Legal Spanish Tips

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

Masculine noun. In Business Spanish, a pliego de condicones is a document, exhaustive and mandatory, that establishes the conditions or clauses that are accepted in a works or services contract, an administrative concession, an auction, a tender, etc. E.g.: La entidad adjudicadora entregará el pliego de condiciones a los proveedores o contratistas de conformidad con los trámites: The procuring entity shall provide the solicitation documents to suppliers or contractors in accordance with the procedures. dc

Feminine noun. In Business Spanish a licitación can mean two different but related things: 1. System by which the performance of a work or a service, generally of a public nature, is awarded to the person or company that offers the best conditions. The lexical phrases are convocar una licitación and adjudicar la licitación (convocatoria de la licitación/ adjudicación de la licitación) It is also possible to say convocar un concurso: to call for tenders. E.g.: La licitacion de la obra fue convocada en mayo y adjudicada a la empresa Constructura Moller y Perez-Cotapos S.A: The tender for the works was called in May and awarded to the company Constructura Moller y Perez-Cotapos S.A. 2. In some countries licitación refers also to a public sale in which a thing, especially goods or things of value, is awarded to the person who offers the most money for it. In Argentina we call the latter subasta pública. dc