Tony M Dec 13, 2012:

Hi Germaine! Ouf ! I thought for a moment I was going completely bonkers there ;-)

I don't give a fig about being 'right' or 'wrong' — but I'm jolly glad if my explanation did actually make things clearer, instead of (as so often with my explanations!) murkier still ;-)

Have a good evening (when you get to yours) and a smashing Christmas too!

Germaine Dec 13, 2012:

My dear Tony, THANKS! I finally see the light! LOL
I noticed the "it" but I was seeing these "officers" and "employee" being "outsiders" par rapport au Manager and obviously, I started on the wrong parsing!
I'll remove my answer, but keep the discussion, should someone else see it my (wrong) way.
Thanks again for taking the time to explain. Have a very nice Christmas!

Tony M Dec 13, 2012:

@ Germaine I'm sorry, but you are twisting the EN in order to make it fit your interpretation, but some things just don't work the way you'd like them to.

For one thing, note that the 'Investment Manager' is an 'it' — i.e. not a person, but an entity; hence clearly, it can only act by way of physical people (which is what this text is all about).

"The Investment Manager [= legal entity, not a physical person] shall be at liberty in ... to act by (responsible officers or employees) or (a responsible officer or employee for the time being)" [= physical persons, the latter fulfilling the described roles perhaps only temporarily]

You cannot simply break down the text any old how.

"The Investment Manager shall be at liberty (in the performance of its duties) and (in the exercise of any of the powers and discretions vested in it hereunder) to act by [these physical persons]"

I really don't see where there is any problem in interpreting this straightforward (if unwieldy!) sentence — unless you are shocked by the relatively uncommon use of 'to act by', where in everyday language other prepositions are perhaps more common with the meaning intended here.

Germaine Dec 13, 2012:

@Tony Back to the english:
The Investment Manager shall be at liberty in the performance of its duties. [Complete sentence]
The Investment Manager shall be at liberty in the exercise of any of the powers and discretions. [Truncated. Which power? Which discretions?]
The powers and discretions to act [that] are hereby vested in it by officers.

This is so evident to me, I can't see an other way to explain it. But one thing is certain: it's NOT "The Investment Manager shall be at liberty to act through [par l'entremise de] responsible officers" cause then, "responsible officers" are in fact acting [for and on behalf of the Manager].

Laure1 (asker) Dec 12, 2012:

@Pierre Merci pour ces commentaires mais effectivement j'avais déjà choisi une autre réponse. Votre proposition était effectivement intéressante, je m'en souviendrai pour la prochaine fois. Dans le contexte dans lequel je travaillais "par l'intermédiaire ou par l'entremise" "était également satisfaisant. Donc merci encore à tout le monde!

Pierre Souris Dec 12, 2012:

@Laure 1 Je ne vois pas comment traduire d'une autre manière "to act by legal counsel" que par "agir en étant représenté par un conseil juridique". La solution "agir par l'entremise ou l'intermédiaire d'un conseil juridique" n'est pas convaincante juridiquement parlant, puisque dans tous les cas le conseil juridique représente son client devant les instances concernées, il ne s'agit pas d'une simple "entremise". C'est cette dernière locution, exemple d'usage de "act by" qui m'a convaincu du bien-fondé de ma proposition. "Agir par l'intermédiaire ou l'entremise" c'est justement "to act through", ainsi que Tony M m'a mis la puce à l'oreille quant à la différence subtile dans le jargon juridique. Donc je pense que la solution d'Alain Boulé prend l'un pour l'autre. Mais c'est un peu tard maintenant pour que je donne une nouvelle réponse, non Laure1? (ce serait le comble si vous étiez Lorraine).

Laure1 (asker) Dec 12, 2012:

Thank you so much for your explanation, this is really helpful

Pierre Souris Dec 12, 2012:

comme dans "to act by legal counsel"? Agir en étant représenté par ..

Tony M Dec 12, 2012:

to act by It read a little oddly at first to me, but I can only assume it means 'to act by way of / via / through' etc. — so maybe you need something like 'par l'intermédiare de...' ?

However, I think you have made one much more serious error in your proposed translation: 'for the time being' certainly does not mean 'à l’époque considérée'!

Although the meaning is not totally clear to me, I would take 'for the time being' as qualifying the whole preceding expression 'a responsible officer or employee', presumably with the meaning '[one of these people] or someone temporarily acting in the role of [one of these people]'.