‘Yes, Your Honor’ / <i>‘Sì, Vostro Onore’</i>: Legal dramas, the popularisation of legal discourse and dubbing

Despite the popularity of legal dramas, there is little research on the popularisation strategies used in them to convey complex legal concepts to viewers. Moreover, the translation of such audiovisual material is also relatively under-researched. This paper presents a qualitative study investigating the popularisation strategies employed in the US legal drama The Good Wife and the translation strategies used in the Italian dubbed version. The English dialogues of 12 episodes were transcribed along with their matching Italian dubbed dialogue, and the relevant legal references were extracted. When lay people interact with legal professionals on screen the dialogue is aimed at both the lay characters and the audience, and it was found that several types of popularisation strategies are used. By contrast, in scenes involving just legal professionals in conversation it would not be realistic to include too much legal exposition. As regards translation, the key principle driving the Italian dubbed version is the need to create plausible-sounding dialogue 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 inform the training of audiovisual translators.