Specialised (or specialist) translation - under its various labels - accounts for most of the volume of translated texts. Cronin (2003, p. 12) affirms that 'most of the work done in translation is in the area of scientific, technical, commercial, legal and administrative or institutional translation', and this is also confirmed by Franco (2004). Some of the varieties or modalities are well defined and have wide currency (legal translation, medical translation, scientific and technical translation, audiovisual translation, etc.), while others are being identified and researched on and constitute still provisional inroads into these areas (e.g. environmental translation, newspaper translation, maritime translation, etc.). When they become well-established, labels carry very far-reaching consequences, as a number of professional and academic aspects are organised around them - professional fees or status, academic courses, social or scholarly events, specialised dictionaries, employment opportunities, trade union concerns, to name but a few. No matter the designation or field of specialisation, instruction and research in these areas is growing day by day, along with the economic impact of some of these modalities. This monographic issue addresses itself to a diversity of perspectives opened up by the growing body of specialised translation. Each translation project gives insights into - and, at the same time, questions - the transnational, hybrid and institutional nature of all translated products and of translation itself as a world-wide activity. Cultural asymmetries are exposed and unveiled mainly through translation, as they signal textual and rhetorical models of different cultures. Meaning is generated through cultural dialogue (and sometimes conflict), with ensuing power differentials and ideological associations. Inevitably then, specialised translation moves clearly towards hybridity. Whether scientific, legal or medical, text 'purity' is today more problematic to ascertain, and so is, consequently, to clearly delineate the specific domains of 'legal', 'medical' or 'scientific' translation. All societies around the world are constantly in need of translated material in order to adequately serve their communicative, cultural and institutional functions. As these societies become more complex and knowledge expands and specialises, so too translation demands more accuracy and specialisation in terms of terminologies, field-specific norms, translating procedures, and so on.