AllegroTrans Apr 13, 2015:

@ Praxis This is almost definitely from France. The TGI is the equivalent of a High Court, both in its jurisdiction and the way it is internally organised. However, unlike e.g. England, it is not a single Court and there is a separate TGI for each region of the country.

AllegroTrans Apr 13, 2015:

@ Nikki I know the asker hasn't given context, but I am 99.5% sure that this is wording at the head of a summons, defence or pleading submitted to the TGI. I often translate such documents.

praxisfrench Apr 13, 2015:

I agree that the translation can be complicated. the jurisdiction of "Grande Instance" may vary from country to country.Plus salutations also vary between countries, In India as Nikki pointed out Hon'ble is the term used for judges and generally the head of a tribunal is not called president.

Jean-Claude Gouin Apr 13, 2015:

13 WORDS ... I thought that the maximum was 10 words ...

merlrennes Apr 13, 2015:

This is complicated because I see that the Tribunal de Grande Instance can be "Regional Court", "High Court in the UK and "Supreme Court" in the US, the latter being the court of "Last resort".
In addition, in Frances juges d'instruction" are in fact prosecuting attorneys (lawyers), i.e. not judges as such. The President would be the Judge. (In the US, the Chief Justice) . The address would be "Your honours"

Nikki Scott-Despaigne Apr 13, 2015:

In order to suggest how this might be rendered, it would be helpful to have context. Is this an oral or written form of address?
(For the UK, an abbreviated form of "Honorable" would not be sufficient. I understand it is usual in India).

If this is in writing, for example, "The Honorable President and Judges of the Tribunal de Grande Instance de [Place] " might be appropriate. More context needed though. It is a specific court, a proper noun. The legal officer of that court have sepcific titles which I think should not be translated descriptively.

As for "President", it is very French. Some translators would opt for something a little more descriptive, such as "Chief Judge" or "Presiding Judge". I think there are a number of good arguments for retaining something close to the French forumlation. "President" would be unambiguous in context and is sufficiently international to be understood widely. Also, it is after all the title of the person in question.

Gaurav Sharma Apr 13, 2015:

Just tried Hon'ble Chief justice (Judge) and Judges of the Court of First Instance

Nikki Scott-Despaigne Apr 13, 2015:

Court of first instance is descriptive and not really a translation. However, I don't think you should translate the title of the court, which is a proper noun after all. Keep it in French, in italics (the convention when a text contains a foreign word) and consider a footnote, or brackets for the descriptive form.