Loophole

[poli]

Dictionaries give this word a literal translation, but more commonly in English it used as a metaphor for a weak part of a written law which allows people to work around the law without technically breaking it.

From reading newspapers, I have assumed that solapamiento
is the term used in Spain for loophole, but I suspect that this term doesn't
cross the Atlantic. Does anyone know for sure? Is this term used in Mexico for example--and other countries as well?

[Rusty]

For law, the term for loophole that my dictionary lists is laguna jurídica.
You can also use escapatoria (a way out).
Hecha la ley, hecha la trampa

My dictionary says solapamiento is overlap.

[Planet hopper]

solapamiento is not common usage in spain, doesn't sound like

laguna juridica implies absence of legislation on the issue, say, internet

I have often found difficulties in law translations often come from the differences between customary law (UK) and roman law (mainland europe).

Not an expert on the subject, but the idea of two laws negating each other or contradicting each other feels awkward.

Each law in spain has an initial section on previous laws that are derogated as that one is published, to avoid conflictos juridicos

[poli]

Thanks both of you for your input.
Rusty, perhaps your defiintion of solapamiento is correct. What led me to believe it meant loophole was the RAE definition which I interpreted as a possible metaphor for loophole. Overlap does seem to be a better translation from the context of what I read today. "El auto señala que se pretende evitar solapamientos en la labor de recopolación de datos"

[sosia]

Usually I translate loophole as "vacío legal". It's when something is not clear enough, for example now (in Spain) to download things in P2P for private copy ("hecha la ley, hecha la trampa", like Rusty says.)
I do not see the english original, but here "solapamiento" can be used. "Solapamiento" (overlap) is when a place is "covered" by two different somebodys/somethings. Taking an example of the movies, it's usual to see movies when the cops find a corpse and it's not clear if must the FBI or the local police, because both have attibutions.
In your example are measures to avoid that two persons/entity enquiry in the same field, to avoid wasting time
greetings

[poli]

Vacío legal is the perfect term. I just read an article in the newspaper that used there term vacío legal to mean loophole.