Multilingualism and the Meaning of EU Law

Multilingualism and the Meaning of EU Law
Author: Irene Otero Fernández
Publisher:
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2020
Genre: Language policy
ISBN:

In today's multilingual EU, with 24 official languages, as many versions of every piece of legislation of general application are produced, all of which are equally authentic. In order to comply with this legal requirement, embodied in the Treaties and in secondary law, legal translation and legal-linguistic revision become fully integrated in the law-making process. But most importantly, the multilingual nature of EU law has consequences for how the meaning of the law may be found through interpretation. The Court of Justice of the European Union has declared that the language versions of EU legal acts should be compared in order to access the meaning of the legislation. That presumption of identity of meaning, however, conflicts with the inherent limits of language. As a result, occasional divergences in the linguistic meaning of the different language versions of EU legislation are unavoidable. These divergences in the linguistic meaning of the language versions of legislation may be bridged through interpretation. These problems of interpretation are ultimately settled by the CJEU, the only authoritative interpreter of EU law. The Court has developed certain techniques for that purpose, not without controversy. In order to solve the puzzle of how to access the meaning of multilingual EU legislation, this thesis first reviews the multilingualism of the EU legislative machinery, subsequently moving from the production of the law to its interpretation. The ultimate goal is to produce a critical assessment of the Court's methods, in order to understand how they fit into the framework designed by the previous Chapters. That is to say, to see how uniformity of meaning, which is constructed first in the legislative procedure in one language, then deconstructed through translation into all official languages, is finally reconstructed by the Court of Justice.

Legal Certainty in Multilingual EU Law

Legal Certainty in Multilingual EU Law
Author: Elina Paunio
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2016-04-22
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1317106369

How can multilingualism and legal certainty be reconciled in EU law? Despite the importance of multilingualism for the European project, it has attracted only limited attention from legal scholars. This book provides a valuable contribution to this otherwise neglected area. Whilst firmly situated within the field of EU law, the book also employs theories developed in linguistics and translation studies. More particularly, it explores the uncertainty surrounding the meaning of multilingual EU law and the impact of multilingualism on judicial reasoning at the European Court of Justice. To reconceptualize legal certainty in EU law, the book highlights the importance of transparent judicial reasoning and dialogue between courts and suggests a discursive model for adjudication at the European Court of Justice. Based on both theory and case law analysis, this interdisciplinary study is an important contribution to the field of European legal reasoning and to the study of multilingualism within EU legal scholarship.

Language and Law

Language and Law
Author: Silvia Marino
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2018-10-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 3319909053

The book provides an overview of EU competition law with a focus on the main developments in Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland and Croatia and offers an in-depth analysis of the role of language, translation and multilingualism in its implementation and interpretation. The first part of the book focuses on the main developments in EU competition law in action, which includes legislation, case law and praxis. This part can be divided into two subparts: the private enforcement of EU competition law, and the cooperation among enforcers, i.e. the EU Commission, the national competition authorities and the national courts. Language is of paramount importance in the enforcement of EU competition law, and as such, the second part highlights legal linguistic skills, showcasing the advantages and the challenges of multilingualism, especially in the context of the predominant use of English as the EU drafting and vehicular language. The volume brings together contributions prepared and presented as part of the EU-funded research project “Training Action for Legal Practitioners: Linguistic Skills and Translation in EU Competition Law".

Language and Culture in EU Law

Language and Culture in EU Law
Author: Susan Šarčević
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2016-03-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317108000

Written by distinguished legal and linguistic scholars and practitioners from the EU institutions, the contributions in this volume provide multidisciplinary perspectives on the vital role of language and culture as key forces shaping the dynamics of EU law. The broad spectrum of topics sheds light on major Europeanization processes at work: the gradual creation of a neutralized EU legal language with uniform concepts, for example, in the DCFR and CESL, and the emergence of a European legal culture. The main focus is on EU multilingual lawmaking, with special emphasis on problems of legal translation and term formation in the multilingual and multicultural European context, including comparative law aspects and an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of translating from a lingua franca. Of equal importance are issues relating to the multilingual interpretation of EU legislation and case law by the national courts and interpretative techniques of the CJEU, as well as the viability of the autonomy of EU legal concepts and the need for the professionalization of court interpreters Union-wide in response to Directive 2010/64/EU. Offering a good mix of theory and practice, this book is intended for scholars, practitioners and students with a special interest in the legal-linguistic aspects of EU law and their impact on old and new Member States and candidate countries as well.

Legal Integration and Language Diversity

Legal Integration and Language Diversity
Author: C. J. W. Baaij
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2018
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0190680784

How can the European Union create laws that are uniform in a multitude of languages? Specifically, how can it attain both legal integration and language diversity simultaneously, without the latter compromising the former? C.J.W. Baaij argues that the answer lies in the domain of translation. A uniform interpretation and application of EU law begins with the ways in which translators and jurist-linguists of the EU legislative bodies translate the original legislative draft texts into the various language versions. In the European Union, law and language are inherently connected. The EU pursues legal integration, i.e. the incremental harmonization and unification of its Member States' laws, for the purpose of reducing national regulatory differences between Member States. However, in its commitment to the diversity of European languages, its legislative institutions enact legislative instruments in 24 languages. Language Diversity and Legal Integration assesses these seemingly incompatible policy objectives and contemporary translation practices in the EU legislative procedure, and proposes an alternative, source-oriented approach that better serves EU policy objectives. Contrary to the orthodox view in academic literature and to the current policies of the EU, this book suggests that the English language version should serve as the original and only authentic legislative text. Translation into the other language versions should furthermore avoid prioritizing clarity and fluency over syntactic correspondence and employ neologisms for distinctly EU legal concepts. Ultimately, Baaij provides practical solutions to the conflict between the equality of all language versions, and the need for uniform interpretation and application of EU law.

Law and Language in the European Union

Law and Language in the European Union
Author: Richard L. Creech
Publisher: Europa Law Publishing
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2005
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9789076871837

The European Economic Community, founded in 1957, consisted of six Member States with a combined total of four official languages. By 2004, this organization had evolved into a European Union of twenty-five Member States with more than twenty official languages among them. This increase has presented numerous challenges to the EU's internal linguistic regime, where formal policy has been, with some notable exceptions, to treat all of these languages equally. Some of these languages - English in particular - have been more equal than others. Languages that lack nation-wide official status in any Member State - such as Catalan and Welsh - have been overtly denied equal treatment. Furthermore, the multilingual nature of the EU has had significant implications for any Member State that wishes to regulate the use of language within its territory, as such regulation can interfere with the rights accorded to citizens of other Member States to participate in free commercial movement throughout the Union. Law and Language in the European Union - now in paperback - examines how, in the linguistic realm, the EU has responded to the tensions that lie behind this paradoxical motto.

Language Rights and the Law in the European Union

Language Rights and the Law in the European Union
Author: Eduardo D. Faingold
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2019-11-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3030330125

This book examines the language policies relating to linguistic rights in European Union law and in the constitutions and legal statutes of some European Union member states. In recent years, the European Union has seen an increase in claims for language recognition by minority groups representing a considerable population (such as Catalan in Spain and Welsh in the UK). Additionally, there is a developing situation surrounding the official use of English within the European Union in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. In light of these two contexts, this book focuses on the degree of legal protection afforded to linguistic groups in the European Union. It will be of interest to students and scholars of language policy, EU law, minority languages and sociolinguistics.

Multilingualism and the Harmonisation of European Law

Multilingualism and the Harmonisation of European Law
Author: Barbara Pozzo
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9041125329

As European lawyers dealing with cross-border issues quickly learn, the terms contract, contrat, and contratto signify three very different legal concepts. This illustration highlights the importance of studying the relationships between language and law, particularly in the context of strong pressure from the European Community to harmonise the laws of the Member States a process which appears difficult, if not impossible, unless there is an understanding of the profound differences which exist between the various legal systems, and the development of a common European legal language from the 21 official languages now a feature of the European Union. This admirable collection of essays brings together the work of practitioners and scholars in three fields pertinent to this endeavour: representatives of Community institutions who are involved in drafting, translating, and interpreting multilingual texts; jurists and comparative lawyers from both civil law and common law systems; and researchers in linguistics and language issues. Among the many relevant matters they discuss are the following: terminologies of rights and remedies; the role of the European Court of Justice as interpreter; multilingualism in parliamentary practice; the role of the European Commissions legal revisers; and translation at the European Court of Justice. The essays were originally presented as papers at a conference held in Como in April 2005, organised by the Faculty of Law of the University of Insubria together with the Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca in Diritto Comparato (Interuniversity Centre for Research in Comparative Law) set up by the Universities of Milan, Bologna and Insubria. This event took place in the context of a research project co-financed by the University of Insubria and the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. The particular objective of the conference was to make a comparison between the day-to-day working requirements within the Community institutions, each with its own particular needs, and the longer-term analysis which the academic world could bring to bear on the problems of the translatability of legal terms. As the first in-depth appraisal of this crucial matter, this book cannot fail to find interested readers among all the branches of European law, practitioners and scholars, local and international. It is sure to be a highly valuable resource for many years to come.

Multilingual Law

Multilingual Law
Author: Colin D Robertson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2016-06-17
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1317093496

This book introduces and explores the concept of multilingual law. Providing an overview as to what is 'multilingual law', the study establishes a new discourse based on this concept, which has hitherto lacked recognition for reasons of complexity and multidisciplinarity. The need for such a discourse now exists and is becoming urgent in view of the progress being made towards European integration and the legal and factual foundation for it in multilingualism and multilingual legislation. Covering different types of multilingual legal orders and their distinguishing features, as well as the basic structure of legal systems, the author studies policy formation, drafting, translation, revision, terminology and computer tools in connection with the legislative and judicial processes. Bringing together a range of diverse legal and linguistic ideas under one roof, this book is of importance to legal-linguists, drafters and translators, as well as students and scholars of legal linguistics, legal translation and revision.