The Future of European Minority Languages: A Legal Analysis

  • Eduardo J. Ruiz Vieytez Human Rights Institute, University of Deusto, Spain
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18543/ced.2472
Keywords: minority languages, constitutions, language rights, official languages, minority rights

Abstract

The European cultural heritage includes a multitude of languages whose legal status is closely related to the political organization of the continent. Legal regulations offer relevant data to analyse the present and future evolution of the non-official languages of Europe. Their fundamental challenge remains to overcome the “one state, one language” principle, which is strongly entrenched in the vast majority of European citizens and institutions, and which relegates minority languages to an inferior status. Within this framework, statehood appears as the necessary, although not sufficient, condition for linguistic normalization, since it is the political classification of power that continues to guide the social and institutional health of languages. In this context, the future of Europe’s minority languages is not favourable and the current dynamics point to a progressive weakening of those that do not have their own political structures in favour of the official European languages and some of the immigrated languages.

Received: 07 March 2022
Accepted: 04 May 2022

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Author Biography

Eduardo J. Ruiz Vieytez, Human Rights Institute, University of Deusto, Spain

Professor at the University of Deusto (Bilbao), where he acts as vice-rector for university strategy. Previously, he was the dean of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences after being director of the Human Rights Institute. He served as legal adviser of the Basque Ombudsman and was the president of a Basque NGO for the promotion of migrants’ rights. Among other responsibilities, Dr. Ruiz Vieytez has been a member of the Spanish Council for Integration of Migrants, the Spanish Observatory for Religious Pluralism, the Basque Culture Official Institute, the International Institute for the Sociology of Law and other foundations and academic networks. At the academic level, he has developed research stays at different universities, particularly in Switzerland, Italy, Canada and Australia. He has also participated in several missions of the Council of Europe concerning national and linguistic minorities in countries like Moldova, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine and Armenia. His fields of research are integration policies, national conflicts, minority rights and the relation between human rights and religious, linguistic and cultural diversity.

Published
2022-07-22
How to Cite
Ruiz Vieytez, Eduardo J. 2022. “The Future of European Minority Languages: A Legal Analysis”. Deusto Journal of European Studies, no. 04 (July), 37-67. https://doi.org/10.18543/ced.2472.
Issue
No. 04 (2022): SPECIAL ISSUE. Linguas minoritarias e futuro de Europa. Minority Languages and the Future of Europe
Section
Articles

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