Comparative Law and Language

Rethinking language rights in the international order

2025-04-30T15:52:24+00:00

In a world where mastery of the dominant language has become an implicit prerequisite for social and civic inclusion, linguistic rights remain relegated to the periphery of international law. Their partial recognition – often subordinated to other fundamental freedoms such as non-discrimination or freedom of expression – confines them to a derivative and residual status, reducing them to mere functional accessories of coexistence. Yet speaking one’s language is not a matter of identity privilege, but a fundamental human right – a right to existence, to memory, to dignity. Through a cross-analysis of migration policies, national and international jurisprudence, and regional normative frameworks, this paper interrogates the actual scope of the guarantees afforded to linguistic communities. It seeks to deconstruct the implicit hierarchy that pits so-called "universal" rights against so-called "cultural" rights, and highlights the exclusionary logics this dichotomy produces. The paper argues that linguistic rights must be conceived not as adaptive concessions, but as normative pillars in their own right – inseparable from freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and meaningful political participation. In contrast to functionalist readings, this paper calls for the reintegration of language into the central architecture of human rights: not merely as a communicative tool, but as a vehicle of recognition and democratic plurality.

An Insight into Linguistic Rights before the Courts and in Public Education in the United States of America

2025-05-02T08:56:23+00:00

This article aims to give a deeper insight in the linguistic rights in the United States of America (United States or US). In particular, it will analyze how these rights are protected and reflect on its effectiveness. Linguistic rights are especially important in multilingual and multicultural societies. The United States are such a society. However, we will see that the United States are evolving more towards a monolingual society, or at least are intentionally trying to implement the use of a sole language in the public sphere, through various legal and other means.

This article consists of three parts. First, it will give an overview of what linguistic rights are and discuss their importance. Furthermore, it will discuss why English is the predominant language in the country today and what other languages play an important role.

Second, it will lay out how linguistic rights are enshrined in the legal sphere and how these are protected. In this part, the article will focus on the legal frameworks for such rights and will take a closer look at how such rights are protected before the United States courts (both at the state and federal level). Special attention is also placed on linguistic minorities and protections for Native languages. When looking at protections before the US courts, the article will draw upon relevant case law in the matter.

Finally, the article will look at the protection of linguistic rights in public education. In doing so, it will again rely on relevant case law in that regard, as well as public policy and other instruments to bring about such protections. Again, here we will have a closer look at linguistic minorities and Native languages.

The Application of Comparative Law Methods in the Legal Translation Process

2025-05-22T13:01:06+00:00

This paper aims to provide an overview of contemporary comparative law methods and demonstrate their potential for use in legal translation. While it focuses on a theoretical framework for such applications (except for one practical example), it has been preceded by other studies in which the framework proposed was tested based on examples from Polish-English legal translation. The present paper is, in particular, intended to share some of the findings of the author’s research to date with a wider international audience. It needs to be noted that although numerous authors in the field of legal translation studies present the view that comparative law and legal translation are closely related, they usually do not offer a broader overview of comparative law methods or suggest ways of how these methods are supposed to be used by translators. When such references do occur, they mainly concern the traditional functional method without considering the more pluralistic approaches that have emerged in comparative law in the last three decades. The paper proposes to distinguish the general method and the specific methods of comparative law and points to possible ways of adapting them for legal translation purposes as part of a process named ‘translational comparative legal analysis’. It also suggests that translators and translation scholars should more often tap into comparative law methodology in search of solutions useful for legal translation purposes.

European States and Status of State Languages De Jure and De Facto.

2025-05-02T08:43:14+00:00

This article deals with the issue of understanding the term ‘state language’ through the lens of the relationship between the concepts De Jure and De Facto. Based on their possible relationship which occurred at the constitutional level and practice of European states, I was able to create four groups (De Jure and De Facto are the same, non De Jure but De Facto, transition group, and special cases of De Jure and De Facto). By using these four groups, I was able to categorize a research sample consisting of 42 European countries. This not only managed to portray the linguistic situation regarding state languages in Europe but also offered one of the supporting options for determining, within the framework of official language designation and language planning, which of the dominant languages in a country could truly be the state language. The main output of this article is thus a table that divides the 42 states into these four groups, containing data on the state language and its constitutional status for each state.

The Luxembourgish Language Law and Policy: a Fairy Tale come true?

2025-05-13T14:11:43+00:00

This article examines language law and policy in the only EU Member State that has a trilingual official language policy in force throughout its territory. Under Luxembourg law, Luxembourgish is designated as the 'national language'. French, on the other hand, is designated as the ‘legislative language’. In addition, Luxembourgish, French and German are the three ‘administrative and court languages’. The present study adopts a law in context approach, integrating the legal analysis of this unique language policy with an overview of the historical background and data on actual language use and practices. The main challenge of Luxembourg's language policy is highlighted, namely finding a balance between national identity and social cohesion.

Book Review: LEGISLEULAB der Europäischen Rechtslinguistik / LEGISLEULAB for the European Legal Linguistics 2020-2023

2025-06-05T13:26:39+00:00

This book review discusses four volumes with almost identical names that were published between 2021 and 2024. They are all about the legal-linguistic analysis of EU texts and legislative procedures. While I find the topic of the volumes very interesting also for the readers of this journal, I was sceptical about the fact that they are all based on the same summer school sessions and document the work carried out during them. In my review, I will address the reasons for my scepticism, but also demonstrate why characteristics of the volumes mitigate it.

Editorial

2025-06-20T14:23:13+00:00

Editorial