engleski

Multilingualism in the EU: Linguistic Challenges and Legal Consequences

One of the consequences, or perks of EU membership is that upon accession, a Member State’s national language acquires the status of ‘official language’ of the EU. The policy of multilingualism is reflected in the motto of the European Union: ‘United in diversity’. Indeed, the respect for linguistic diversity is one of the overarching aims of the European Union, enshrined in the Treaty on European Union, as well as the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Adding to the linguistic diversity, the legal systems and cultures of Member States are marked by their traditions, peculiarities, concepts and definitions. In a multilingual environment, such as the EU, the inevitable linguistic divergences between the language versions sometimes result in legal consequences. Bearing in mind the importance of uniform application and interpretation of EU law, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) has provided legal practitioners in EU Member States with instructions how to cope with linguistic discrepancies. Ever since the case Stauder (EU:C:1969:57), it became clear that a comparison of all language versions of the same legal text is needed in order to interpret its true meaning. But how viable is this requirement in light of EU enlargement and a proliferation of official languages of the EU almost five decades later? This contribution will attempt to answer this question by addressing both legal and linguistic challenges pertaining to interpretation of multilingual law. To this end, the contribution analyses examples in which law and language intersect, and examines the consequences of using inappropriate terms in legal translation.

multilingualism, official language, CJEU

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