Due to the significant differences between legal systems, the mediating task of the translator between those systems, as well as between languages, must span “legal linguistic” pillars drawing from various disciplines within the framework of a translation specialization with its own techniques and tools. This article aims at scrutinizing those elements and their integration into a comprehensive methodology of legal translation in which traductological analysis is built on the specific contextualization of each translation job in its legal and macrotextual coordinates. Such contextualization (which we articulate according to parameters of legal system, legal branch and textual typology) will be the appropriate basis for addressing microtextual aspects of comprehension and reformulation in legal translation. We ultimately highlight the need for a flexible approach oriented to each translation specialization, interdisciplinarity being common to them all, and its systematic analysis proving a requirement for the reinforcement of both the specificity of translation training, and the quality and recognition of professional translation work.