Abstract: Full understanding of legal vocabulary plays a pivotal role in the translation of laws in that legal vocabulary conveys the authority and value of law. Some vocabularies are symbolic while others are functional, which include modals. This paper discusses the legal implications of shall by exploring the origin of its use in laws and examining its examples, introduces the principles concerning legal translation and puts forward some suggestions for the translation of shall from English to Chinese in legal documents.

Key words: laws translation, modal verbs, legal implications, translation principles

摘要:法律词汇体现了法律的权威和价值。充分理解法律词汇对法律翻译起着至关重要的作用。某些法律词汇是象征性的词汇而另外一些则是功能性的词汇，如情态动词。本文通过探讨shall的法律历史渊源以及分析shall在法律文件中的实例来总结shall在法律文件中的主要含义。本文还介绍了法律文件翻译中的原则，进而对英文法律文件中shall的汉译提出一些建议。

关键词:法律翻译，情态动词，法律含义，翻译原则