Language Rights of the Citizen of the European Union

Name: Language Rights of the Citizen of the European Union
Price: 56.00 CHF
Availability: InStock
Author: Aneta Skorupa-Wulczyńska
ISBN: 978-3-631-88289-4

Skorupa-Wulczyńska, Aneta

Language Rights of the Citizen of the European Union

by Aneta Skorupa-Wulczyńska (Author)

Law, Economics & Management

Series: Ius, Lex et Res Publica, Volume 21

Summary

The monograph aims to verify the thesis that the language rights of European Union citizens are an important element of the EU’s respect for the national identities of its Member States guaranteed in the Treaties. The protection of these rights has been consistently strengthened in EU law, with citizenship of the Union playing an important role in this process.
The formulated thesis is verified mainly through the use of the dogmatic and legal methods, and the comparative legal method. The specific nature of the subject matter discussed requires an interdisciplinary approach, and the methods used in the field of linguistics are also applied mainly with reference to the conceptual apparatus adopted within the EU legal order.

Excerpt

Cover
Title
Copyright
About the author
About the book
This eBook can be cited
Table of Contents
Acronyms and abbreviations
Introduction
1. Subject of the dissertation
2. Thesis, research hypotheses and research problems
3. Structure of the dissertation
4. Research methods employed
5. Literature Review
1. Linguistic framework of the European Union
1.1 Opening remarks
1.2 The concept of linguistic diversity in the European Union
1.3 The concept of multilingualism in the European Union
1.4 The language policy of the European Union
1.4.1 Definition of language policy and its components
1.4.2 EU language policy and its components
1.4.3 Legal framework for the EU language policy
1.4.3.1 Treaty provisions on language matters
1.4.3.2 Division of powers in language matters
1.4.3.3 EU language policy vs minority language protection
1.4.4 Multilingualism strategy as a component of the EU language policy
1.4.4.1 Aims of the EU multilingualism strategy
1.4.4.2 Legal basis for the EU multilingualism strategy
1.4.4.3 Actions taken within the EU multilingualism strategy
1.4.5 Contradictions of the EU language policy
1.5 Sources of language rights in the EU law
1.6 Language policies of the United Nations and the Council of Europe
1.6.1 Language policy of the United Nations
1.6.1.1 Linguistic regime of the United Nations
1.6.1.2 UN’s actions to promote multilingualism
1.6.1.3 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
1.6.1.4 Language rights vs UN language policy
1.6.2 Language policy of the Council of Europe
1.6.2.1 Linguistic regime of the Council of Europe
1.6.2.2 Implementation of the CoE language policy
1.6.2.3 Language rights vs CoE language policy
1.6.2.4 Language rights before the European Court of Human Rights
1.6.3 EU language policy in comparison with the language policies of the UN and the CoE
1.7 Conclusions
2. Language rights resulting from the European Union’s linguistic regime
2.1 Opening remarks
2.2 Status of languages
2.2.1 Treaty/authentic languages
2.2.2 Official and working languages
2.2.2.1 The concept of EU co-official language
2.2.3 The status of English after Brexit
2.2.4 The proposal to introduce one EU official language
2.3 Language rights based on EU multilingual law
2.3.1 Principles related to EU multilingual law
2.3.1.1 The principle of legal certainty
2.3.1.2 The principle of legal multilingualism
2.3.1.2.1 Drafting and publication of EU law
2.3.1.2.2 Legal acts subject to the principle of legal multilingualism
2.3.1.2.2.1 Regulations and other acts of general application
2.3.1.2.2.2 International agreements
2.3.1.3 The principle of equal authenticity
2.3.1.3.1 The principle of equal authenticity under international law
2.3.1.3.2 Interpretation of EU multilingual law by the Court of Justice
2.3.1.4 The principle of the uniform interpretation and application of law
2.3.2 The citizen’s right to be unilingual in the light of EU multilingual law
2.4 Language rights based on EU institutional multilingualism
2.4.1 External and internal dimension of EU institutional multilingualism
2.4.2 Language rights in the context of the external dimension of EU institutional multilingualism
2.4.2.1 The right to send documents to European Union institutions and receive a reply in one of the EU official languages
2.4.2.1.1 The EU institutions specified in Article 13 TEU
2.4.2.1.2 The EU advisory bodies and agencies
2.4.2.2 The right of access to legal proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Union in one of the EU official languages
2.4.2.2.1 Authenticity of the Court of Justice judgments
2.4.3 Language rights in the context of the internal dimension of EU institutional multilingualism
2.4.3.1 Internal linguistic regimes of the EU institutions
2.4.3.1.1 General remarks
2.4.3.1.2 The European Parliament
2.4.3.1.3 The European Council and the Council of the European Union
2.4.3.1.4 The European Commission
2.4.3.1.5 The Court of Justice of the European Union
2.4.3.2 Impact of restricted internal linguistic regimes on external language use
2.4.3.2.1 Restricted language regimes vs the right of access to information
2.4.3.2.2 Information on the websites of the EU institutions
2.4.3.2.3 Public consultations
2.4.3.2.4 Recruitment procedures for the EU staff
2.4.3.2.5 Invitations to tenders
2.5 Conclusions
3. Language rights resulting from citizenship of the Union
3.1 Opening remarks
3.2 Citizenship of the Union
3.2.1 The concept of citizenship of the Union
3.2.2 The principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality and citizenship of the Union
3.2.3 The rights of the Union citizen under the Lisbon Treaty
3.3 Language rights attached to the right to move and reside freely and the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality
3.3.1 The right to move and reside freely
3.3.1.1 The concept of the right to move and reside freely
3.3.1.2 Limitations to the right to move and reside freely
3.3.1.3 The right to move and reside freely vs internal market freedoms
3.3.2 Language rights attached to the right to move and reside freely and the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality
3.3.2.1 The right of access to education in one’s own language
3.3.2.2 The right to use one’s own language before Member State courts
3.3.2.3 The right to choose one’s name and surname
3.3.2.4 Language rights of workers and self-employed persons and their limitations
3.4 Language rights in communication with the EU institutions
3.4.1 The right to petition the European Parliament in one of the Treaty languages
3.4.2 The right to apply to the European Ombudsman in one of the Treaty languages
3.4.3 The right to address the Union institutions in one of the Treaty languages
3.5 Other language rights attached to the rights of the Union citizen
3.5.1 Language rights resulting from diplomatic and consular protection
3.5.2 The right of access to Union documents in one of the EU official languages
3.5.3 The right to submit European Citizens’ Initiative in one of the EU official languages
3.6 Language rights of consumers
3.6.1 Free movement of goods vs consumer protection
3.6.2 Language use in consumer contracts and disputes
3.6.3 Language use when health and safety are at stake
3.7 Conclusions
4. Language rights resulting from the protection of fundamental rights in the European Union
4.1 Opening remarks
4.2 Language rights in the light of international law
4.2.1 Aims and scope of language rights protection
4.2.1.1 Language rights protection in the concentric circles
4.2.2 Individual vs collective nature of language rights
4.2.2.1 Language rights as collective rights
4.2.2.1.1 Corporate and collective conceptions
4.2.2.2 Language rights as individual rights
4.2.2.2.1 Human rights-based approach to language rights
4.2.3 Negative and positive language rights
4.2.4 Language rights in the private and public sphere
4.2.5 Language rights as universal human rights
4.2.5.1 Freedom of expression
4.2.5.2 The right to non-discrimination on the grounds of language
4.2.5.2.1 Overview of key binding international law instruments on the right to non-discrimination on the grounds of language
4.2.5.3 The right to education
4.2.5.4 Procedural linguistic human rights
4.2.5.5 Enforcement of language rights
4.3 Language rights as fundamental rights in the EU
4.3.1 Classification of language rights as fundamental rights
4.3.2 Language rights as general principles of EU law
4.3.3 Language rights entrenched in the Charter
4.4 Language rights provided in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
4.4.1 Non-discrimination on the grounds of language and nationality
4.4.2 Respect for linguistic diversity
4.4.3 Right to education
4.4.4 Citizen’s rights enshrined in the Charter
4.4.5 Right to a fair trial and the right of defence
4.4.5.1 The right to a translator/interpreter in criminal proceedings
4.5 Impact of the EU accession to the ECHR on human rights protection in the EU
4.5.1 EU’s obligation to accede to the ECHR
4.5.2 Language rights upon the Union’s accession to the ECHR
4.6 Conclusions
Final conclusions
References
Index of Names
Series Index

←12 | 13→

Acronyms and abbreviations

Cedefop	European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training
CEFR	Common European Framework of Reference
Charter	The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
CLIL	Content and Language Integrated Learning
CoE	Council of Europe
Commission	European Commission
COREPER	Committee of the Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States to the European Union
Court of Justice	Court of Justice of the European Union
CRC	Convention on the Rights of the Child
EC	European Communities, European Commission
ECB	European Central Bank
ECC	European Consumer Centre
ECC-Net	European Consumer Centres’ Network
ECHR	European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
ECI	European Citizens’ Initiative
ECML	European Centre for Modern Languages
ECRML	European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
ECtHR	European Court of Human Rights
EDPS	European Data Protection Supervisor
EEC	European Economic Community
EESC	European Economic and Social Committee
EILC	European Indicator of Language Competence
EP	European Parliament
EPC	European Professional Card
EPSO	European Personnel Selection Office
ESLC	European Survey on Language Competences
EUIPO	European Union Intellectual Property Office, formerly: the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM)
EU	European Union
EURATOM	European Atomic Energy Community
Eurojust	European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation
FCNM	Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
GA	General Assembly (of the UN)
ICCPR	International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
ICESCR	International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights←13 \| 14→
ICJ	International Court of Justice
LPP	Language Policy Programme
LT	Lisbon Treaty, Treaty of Lisbon
OJEU	Official Journal of the European Union
PCP	Product Contact Point
PSC	Point of Single Contact
TEC, EC Treaty	Treaty establishing the European Community
TEEC, EEC Treaty	Treaty establishing the European Economic Community
TEU	Treaty on European Union
TFEU	Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
UDHR	Universal Declaration of Human Rights
UN	United Nations
UNESCO	United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNHRC	United Nations Human Rights Committee
VET	Vocational Education and Training

←14 | 15→

Introduction

1. Subject of the dissertation

Statistically Europe is the poorest continent in terms of languages. Out of more than 7100 living languages in the world only around 280 are European.¹ Still, linguistic diversity is considered to be an appropriate description of the sociolinguistic situation in the European Union. The organization is home to nearly 450 million people² of diverse linguistic, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. The European Union³ recognises 24 official and working languages⁴ and over 60 autochthonous languages spoken over its geographical area. The languages are of different status. Most of them are spoken by few people and several are remarkably widespread.⁵ The languages used within the EU are also enriched by those of the migrant population (allochthonous languages), not recognised by the Union. As their number is constantly growing, they are hard to keep track of. Despite the fact that the Union institutions find it difficult to include them in a coherent policy, they certainly colour the linguistic landscape of the EU.⁶ The co-existence of a variety of languages in the EU resembles a linguistic mosaic, differing from Member State⁷ to Member State and from region to region.

European linguistic patterns have been shaped by history, geographical factors and the mobility of people. Already in the seventeenth century, German philosophers, including Leibniz, called for a linguistic nationalism having observed that a nation and a language flourished together. They promoted the use of a national language in public discourse to promote unity across social strata and to educate the general population in a standard national language.⁸ Later, language ←15 | 16→matters gained importance in Europe in the post-Cold War years as they became one of the dimensions of the quest for a new society based on human rights. Since then, the issue of languages has triggered relevant international treaties, national legislation, and political initiatives. A new dimension assigned to the protection of languages in Europe originated from two sources: firstly, a doctrine of nationalism in terms of language matters, and secondly, the need to introduce legal and formal regulations on language use. The former was shaped through the complicated history of the continent and the relations between the states. The USSR’s dominance over Europe, including obligatory courses of Russian aimed to shape the Russian identity, proves to have contributed to the strengthening of the native languages of the states affected by Russia. As a result, language was perceived as a carrier of tradition and an element of uniform national identity (one nation, one state, one language). Such an approach gained popularity at the outset of the twentieth century and directly affected the shape of the Old Continent. The latter was a consequence of nationalistic ideologies prevailing in the World Wars. The post-war situation required regulations assuring the national and linguistic identity of all the states, which would make Europeans avoid confrontation policies in favour of cooperation between nations.9

Such a state of affairs laid the foundations for the European idea of multilingualism. The European Communities’¹⁰ (EC) approach to multilingualism was based on the principle of the equality of all the Member States’ languages entrenched in democracy and modern concepts of human rights.¹¹ The EC embraced the principle of linguistic equality in order to express respect for the principal aims of most language policies of the Community Member States. Those, first and foremost, served to achieve and preserve unity and identity, where the need of a state common language of communication contributed to social cohesion and democracy in society.¹² Both the historical background of the continent and a strong impact of the Member State language policies shaped the European Union as the ←16 | 17→most multilingual international organization respecting the linguistic diversity of all mostly monolingual Member States.13

Multilingualism has been a cornerstone and a symbol of European integration since the beginning of the Community’s existence. For its founders, the Member States’ languages constituted part of Europe’s rich and diverse cultural heritage and their linguistic equality aimed to contribute to social cohesion, and to be the source of tolerance and acceptance of differences between people.¹⁴ European diversity in languages became a founding principle of the Community and in 2000, it became reflected in the Union’s motto of ‘unity in diversity’.¹⁵ The equality of all Union official languages became a pragmatic assumption of the functioning of the EU institutions and bodies, which have consistently declared that they will maintain multilingual linguistic regimes in order to preserve the diversity of cultures and languages. The laws protecting the languages of Member States have been not only strategic directions, but also among the primary conditions for cooperation between the EU institutions and Union citizens.

The Union became the addressee of the Treaty requirements of respecting linguistic diversity of its Member States. The obligations imposed on the EU include both passive Union’s respect for linguistic diversity while pursuing the Union policies and active actions aiming to achieve a particular state of affairs in respect of linguistic diversity and multilingualism.¹⁶ As “a community of communication”,¹⁷ the EU developed democratic structures providing legitimacy for its actions and guaranteeing the democratic rights of Member States’ citizens to have equal access to the EU institutions without language barriers.¹⁸ Moreover, being aware of the fact that “diversity of languages means richness, but may also mean difference, divergence, and even mutual isolation,”¹⁹ the Union has implemented its multilingualism strategy, the major aim of which is to promote foreign language learning ←17 | 18→among Member States’ citizens. The European Commission stresses that the ability to communicate in a number of languages brings not only enormous social benefits but also increases creativity, triggers mobility, and significantly enhances the employability of citizens.20

The growing linguistic diversity of the EU has evolved into an important social, legal, cultural, economic, and political fact of life.²¹ With each successive enlargement, the languages of the new Member States were added to the list of Union official languages, which on the one hand highlighted the role of multilingualism, and on the other, increased complexity and created new challenges for the Union institutions, the Member States, and their citizens.²² The problems concerned a variety of issues, including the interpretation of increasingly multilingual law equally valid in all the EU official languages. In this respect, the major challenge concerned the expression of the same content in different national languages, thus guaranteeing equal rights to all Union citizens. If, therefore, expression of the same rights in two languages may be a problem, it is obvious that the difficulty grows proportionately when there are over 20 languages.²³ Other major challenges have included the functioning of the EU institutions in an increasing number of languages as well as day-to-day linguistic difficulties resulting from the enhanced mobility and closer integration of the Union citizens. Whereas the former required from the EU institutions administrative capabilities to efficiently function in many languages, the latter experienced mostly by the movement of citizens operating in the public sphere. As a result of growing mobility for a variety of purposes, Member States’ citizens found themselves in various formal, official, and public situations in which they became obliged to use an official language of the host State or were forced to pay the costs of a translator/interpreter. Individuals began to claim their language rights of varied nature, including the right to education in their language while staying in a host State, the right to use the language understandable by them before the Member State courts, the right not to be discriminated against based on language as a worker or self-employed person, or the right ←18 | 19→to understand the labels of the product available on the market of their state, to name but a few.

The European Union’s respect for linguistic diversity constitutes an important element of its respect for “the equality of the Member States before the Treaties as well as their national identities,” as protected under Article 4(2) TEU.24 Although the concept of ‘national identity’ does not have a clear definition in the EU,²⁵ it may undoubtedly be contended that national languages – often protected by the state constitutional legal orders²⁶ – constitute an essential element of a state’s national identity.²⁷ As a result, respect for cultural and linguistic diversity, shaped as the Union’s aim²⁸ and one of its fundamental rights²⁹ and values, may be read as an expression of the Union’s respect for the national identities of its Member States. The Court of Justice³⁰ expressly ruled in its judgments that the Union’s respect for the national identities of the Member States includes protection of their state official languages.³¹ At the same time, it should be noted that ‘national identity’ stands for the identity of the state-building nations, i.e. nations constituting the majority in a given state.³² Such understanding may justify the exclusion of national minorities’ ←19 | 20→issues from the scope of analysis concerning Member States’ national identities. From the EU’s perspective, respect for diversity indicates that the limits for European integration are based on the statehood of the Member States, including the fundamental principles of the state system, protection of democracy, rule of law, and fundamental rights, as well as cultural and constitutional identity.33 From the perspective of the Member States, the Union’s respect for diversity guarantees that the essential elements of a state’s national identity are observed.³⁴ As a consequence, the Union is prevented from disproportionate interference in the internal spheres concerning the national identity of a Member State.³⁵ This implies that the Union should identify and define such elements of national identity as are relevant for the EU actions and apply those which will in a least acute manner limit the national identities of its Member States.³⁶

The language rights of the Union citizen constitute an important element of the EU’s respect for linguistic diversity. Furthermore, observing the citizen’s right to use a Member State national language, being also the EU official language, can be perceived as a manifestation of the EU’s respect for the national identity of a Member State. Although the issue of language rights in the EU is important, as it may concern every Union citizen acting within the scope of the EU law, it remains largely unresolved. The scholarly contributions in the subject are rather sparse. Neither has the nature of the rights been established nor their legal status specified. I have identified two major reasons for that status quo. Firstly, the issue of language rights in the EU is not an easy one. The specificity of the EU as an international organization embodied by its autonomous legal order and high concentration of powers conferred by the Member States, on the one hand, and an unprecedented diversity of 24 official languages and lack of exclusive competences on the part of the Union in language matters, on the other, make the issue of language rights in the Union complex, multidimensional, sometimes vague and dependent on correlated factors. Secondly, the issue of languages, including language rights, has always been highly sensitive as it is tightly identified with the defence of Member State’s national identity and sovereignty within the structures of the European Union as well as the underprivileged status of EU non-official languages.

As a result of the above, the Union’s approach to language rights has taken a specific shape resulting from two of its objectives: respect for cultural and linguistic diversity, on the one hand, and striving for tightening and standardising cooperation between Member States, on the other. The effect is that to date language rights have often been the outcome of the EU’s balancing between contradictory ←20 | 21→cultural and economic objectives and acting in the light of the principle of subsidiarity and the principle of proportionality.

2. Thesis, research hypotheses and research problems

Thesis: the dissertation aims to verify the main thesis according to which the language rights of the Union citizen are an important element of the EU’s respect for the national identities of its Member States guaranteed in the Treaties. The protection of these rights has been consistently strengthened in EU law, with citizenship of the Union playing an important role in this process.

Research hypotheses: in order to verify the main thesis of the dissertation, the following research hypotheses have been formulated:

1. Language rights are an integral part of the European Union language policy.

2. The European Union maintains a linguistic regime which constitutes the grounds for language rights.

3. Citizenship of the Union strengthens the protection of language rights of Member States’ citizens.

4. The European Union respects selected language rights as fundamental rights.

Research problems: the analysis and justification of the above hypotheses require examination of the following research problems:

1. analysis of the European Union’s language policy and its impact on language rights of Member States’ citizens,

2. examination of the language rights of Member States’ citizens resulting from the EU multilingual law,

3. investigation into the rights of Member States’ citizens related to language use in communication with the EU institutions,

4. exploration of language rights resulting from the rights expressly granted to the Union citizen in the Lisbon Treaty,

5. investigation into the language rights arising from the universal human rights constituting general principles of EU law,

6. scrutiny of language rights resulting from the protection of fundamental rights laid down in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

3. Structure of the dissertation

The structure of the dissertation reflects to the above hypotheses and research problems. The dissertation consists of four chapters.

Chapter 1 deals with the analysis of the linguistic framework of the European Union. Firstly, the primary concepts of the EU language policy, such as respect for linguistic diversity and multilingualism, are introduced and discussed. Secondly, the analysis includes defining the concept of the EU language policy, specifying its components and legal grounds. The chapter examines the relevant Treaty ←21 | 22→provisions and the division of powers between the EU institutions and the Member States in the area of languages. Next, it analyses the implementation of the policy, including the EU multilingualism strategy as one of its components. Further, three major sources of the language rights of Member States nationals are distinguished. These are the rights arising from the EU language system (regime), rights related to Union citizenship and rights arising from the protection of fundamental rights in the EU. In order to demonstrate the unique character of the EU language policy, the last part of the chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the language policies of two important international organizations, i.e. the United Nations and the Council of Europe, with particular emphasis placed on the language rights of citizens of their members.

Chapter 2 discusses the language rights of the citizens of the Member States embedded in the EU linguistic regime. The first part of the chapter explores the status of languages distinguished in the EU: treaty/authentic languages, official languages and working languages. The second part of the chapter investigates the major principles governing the EU multilingual law, such as the principle of legal certainty, the principle of legal multilingualism, the principle of equal authenticity and the principle of the uniform interpretation and application of the law. The principles are analysed with the aim of verifying whether Member State citizens have the right to be unilingual, i.e. to base their knowledge about EU legal acts on one language version and at the same time to act in accordance with EU law. Next, language rights resulting from EU institutional multilingualism are analysed in the context of the external and internal linguistic regimes of the EU institutions. The rights subjected to examination include the right to send documents to the EU institutions and to receive replies in one of the EU official languages and the right to access court proceedings before the Court of Justice in one of the official languages of the Union. Finally, the impact of the internal restricted regimes of the EU institutions on the language rights of Member State citizens is scrutinised. The examined rights include the linguistic aspects of the citizen’s right of access to information, including the information available on the EU institutions’ websites, the right to participate in public consultations, and to take part in recruitment procedures for the EU institutions staff, and invitations to tenders.

Chapter 3 focuses on the examination of language rights related to citizenship of the Union. Firstly, the concept of citizenship of the Union is presented and its close relationship with the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality is demonstrated. Next, a catalogue of rights granted to the Union citizen under the Treaty of Lisbon is presented. The rights constitute a starting point for studying the language rights embedded in Union citizenship. Particular attention is paid to the language rights arising from the right to freely move and reside, read in conjunction with the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality. The following rights are examined in detail: the right of access to education in one’s own language, the right to use one’s own language before Member State courts, the right to choose one’s name and surname, as well as the language rights of workers and self-employed persons. Subsequently, the rights of the Union ←22 | 23→citizen to petition the European Parliament, to apply to the European Ombudsman, and to address the EU institutions in one of the Treaty languages are analysed. Next, the linguistic aspects of other rights vested in the Union citizen are examined, including the right to receive diplomatic and consular protection, the right of access to the Union documents, and to submit the European Citizens’ Initiative. The final part of the chapter studies the language rights of consumers stemming from their protection as parties to a contract or in disputes and when their health and safety are at stake.

Chapter 4 examines the scope of language rights protected as fundamental rights in the EU. Firstly, the international law background to the concept of language rights understood as (fundamental) human rights is presented. It includes the aims and scope of language rights protection, the individual and collective nature of the rights, language rights in the public and private sphere, as well as positive and negative aspects of the rights. Moreover, the first part of the chapter studies language rights as linguistic aspects of universal human rights protected under international law instruments, including freedom of expression, the right of non-discrimination on the grounds of language, the right to education, and procedural linguistic human rights. Secondly, language rights are set up in the context of the EU fundamental rights protection system. Two major sources of such rights are identified: firstly, the general principles of EU law, including international human rights instruments, in particular the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR)37 and the case-law of the Court of Justice, and secondly, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the Charter).³⁸ As the general principles of EU law are grounded in the relevant international human rights instruments discussed in the first part of the chapter, the further analysis focuses on the language rights embedded in the Charter. They entail linguistic aspects of the right to non-discrimination on the grounds of language and nationality, respect for linguistic diversity, the right to education, the citizen’s rights as well as the right to a fair trial and the right of defence, with particular regard to the right to a translator/an interpreter in criminal proceedings. The last part of the chapter outlines the impact of the EU accession to the ECHR on the language rights of the Union citizen.

4. Research methods employed

The formulated thesis and research hypotheses are verified based on the analysis of the Treaties and relevant legislation, international law instruments, and political ←23 | 24→documents, as well as academic studies on the subject matter (dogmatic and legal method). The comparative legal method is also used in order to examine the language policies of the EU, the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the rights of individuals arising therefrom.

In addition, the historical method is employed to present the sources and evolution of language rights. The analysis includes legislative acts and other documents adopted by the Community/Union institutions.

The specific nature of the discussed subject matter and the objective of this dissertation need an interdisciplinary approach. For this reason, the research methods employed go beyond pure legal assessment. The methods used in the field of linguistics (discourse analysis, including critical discourse analysis) are applied mainly with reference to the conceptual apparatus adopted within the EU legal order. It constitutes the basis for the analysis of the EU primary and secondary law and the EU judicature.

Details

Pages: 326
Year: 2022
ISBN (PDF): 9783631882894
ISBN (ePUB): 9783631874882
ISBN (MOBI): 9783631880739
ISBN (Hardcover): 9783631881583
DOI: 10.3726/b19887
Language: English
Publication date: 2022 (August)
Keywords: Linguistic regime legal multilingualism language policy institutional multilingualism fundamental rights linguistic human rights
Published: Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2022. 326 pp., 2 fig. b/w.

Biographical notes

Aneta Skorupa-Wulczyńska (Author)

Aneta Skorupa-Wulczyńska is a doctor of law at the Institute of Legal Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Her main academic interests include language rights, legal linguistics, linguistic human rights, rights of national minorities, and migration.

Language Rights of the Citizen of the European Union

Summary

Excerpt

Table Of Contents

Acronyms and abbreviations

Introduction

1. Subject of the dissertation

2. Thesis, research hypotheses and research problems

3. Structure of the dissertation

4. Research methods employed

Details

Biographical notes

Key Subject Areas