Category: Legal Spanish Vocabulary

Adjective. This word is exclusively from Legal Spanish and it means mandatory, prescriptive, constraining. E.g.: Se garantizará así su carácter vinculante y su aplicación directa por los tribunales nacionales. The convention would thus be rendered binding and directly applicable by domestic courts.
The verb is vincular, to constrain, to make mandatory; although it can be used on a more generic tone as to link. dc

Feminine noun. Loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or alternatively by existing property owners to raise funds for any purpose while putting a lien on the property itself. E.g.: Cuídese de cualquier compañía que cobre una tarifa para refinanciar una hipoteca: Beware of any company that charges a fee to refinance a mortgage.
It is also used the expression crédito hipotecario, although it is used in a more formal register. Hipotecario/a is the adjective.
The verb is hipotecar. dc

Masculine noun. In Business and Legal Spanish aval is the person or thing that guarantees the payment of a credit, serves as a guarantee of the fulfillment of a certain thing or is responsible for the conduct of another person, normally by means of his signature. E.g.: De hecho, se ofreció al banco una garantía en forma de aval sobre el suelo y todos los activos fijos, así como siete letras de cambio: In fact a collateral in the form of a pledge on land and on all fixed assets was given to the bank, as well as seven bills of exchange.
I would use the terms aval and garantía (feminine noun) as synonyms. The only difference is that if the aval is a person, in this case it will be called garante and not garantía. La garantía refers always and exclusively to a thing, instead el aval can refer to both person and thing. Curiosly, aval cannot be turned into feminine if the person is female, instead, garante can: el/la garante.
On a more general note aval can also be translated as ‘endorsement’.
The verbs are avalar and garantizar. dc

Masculine noun. In Business Spanish viático is the prevention, in kind or in money, of what is necessary for the sustenance of those who make a business trip. E.g.: Los asesores de UNISTAR reciben sólo viáticos y gastos de viaje: UNISTAR advisers receive only travel and subsistence costs.
In the Catholic Church, el viático is also the sacrament of the Eucharist administered to the sick who are in danger of death; ‘viaticum’ in English. As you can see, we are also speaking about a travel. dc

Verb. To certify, record, attest. This verb is much used in Legal Spanish in expressions such as hacer constar en actas: E.g.: No obstante, quisiéramos hacer constar en actas nuestras observaciones iniciales en relación con cuestiones que son pertinentes: However, we would like to put on record our initial comments in relation to issues that are pertinent and important to my delegation. dc

Verb. This word is almost always exclusively used in a business context and it means ‘to return an amount to the person who had given it’. Its exact opposite is desembolsar. E.g.: Por lo tanto, se necesita una devaluación real para reembolsar la deuda si se quiere evitar una ralentización o incluso… Thus, a real devaluation is necessary to repay the debt if a slowdown or even a recession in the debtor country is to be avoided; El administrador tendrá las funciones de desembolsar el dinero para el proyecto y llevar la contabilidad pertinente: It shall be his/her responsibility to disburse funds to the project and account for the LCIF grant funding.
The nouns are el reembolso and el desembolso and the adjectives are reembolsable and desembolsable. As you can see, both words come from bolsa, bag. On a more colloquial tone we have the verb embolsar, to pocket; but bolsar does not exist. A perfect synonym of reembolsar is reintegrar; the noun is el reintegro and the adjective reintegrable. dc