조약의 언어와 해석 그리고 번역 - 수호통상조약을 중심으로

Abstract

Joseon Dynasty begin its first official contact with western powers in the 1800s, and was almost forced to become included into the world order centered around the western nations. Joseon faced open without any preparations, which was different from Japan and western powers that had made detailed preparation for a long time for the purpose of invasion into Joseon. With the friendship and trade treaty between Joseon and Japan in 1876 as the start, Joseon entered into friendship and trade treaty with western powers, such as the U.S.A., England, France, Germany and Russia. All the commercial treaties not only with western powers but also with Japan and China were unequal. In fact, Japan and China, which had opened their doors to foreign countries before Joseon did, also signed unequal treaties with the western nations. Joseon concluded more unequal treaties than Japan and China because of its lack of understanding of foreign languages as well as of modern western laws. In addition,it made a language-decisive mistake in that treaties written in foreign languages became the standard of interpretation when misunderstandings related to law clauses arose. It showed how poor the understanding of the importance of languages and translation was in those days. This attitude ended up incurring an economic loss in reality