Abstract
The rule of law, guaranteed in democratic countries, requires that those who are subject to the law should be able to know the law (the principle of legal certainty). Hence, a citizen should have an access to laws in a language that he or she knows. Therefore, in multilingual settings, the principle of legal multilingualism requires that legal acts be drafted in all official languages and provides that all language versions be equally authentic and contribute to the meaning of a legal act. Thus, citizens can read laws in a language they understand. On the other hand, since no two languages are identical, the discrepancies between language versions, due to the nature of language or a mistake, are inevitable. The paper identifies methods applied by judges of the Court of Justice of the European Union and national courts to deal with the discrepancies between language versions of EU legal acts. Through case law analysis, the paper demonstrates whether the principle of legal multilingualism actually guarantees legal certainty and what courts can do to make the right to remain unilingual in a multilingual setting real.
Highlights
IntroductionThe paper analyzes whether legal multilingualism in the European Union provides EU citizens with the right to remain unilingual, i.e. to base their knowledge about multilingual EU law on one language version of a legal act, and still enjoy the certainty of law
The paper analyzes whether legal multilingualism in the European Union provides EU citizens with the right to remain unilingual, i.e. to base their knowledge about multilingual EU law on one language version of a legal act, and still enjoy the certainty of law.The first part of the paper gives a short overview of the meaning of the principle of legal certainty in the European Union
The paper demonstrates whether the principle of legal multilingualism guarantees legal certainty and what courts can do to make the right to remain unilingual in a multilingual setting real
Summary
The paper analyzes whether legal multilingualism in the European Union provides EU citizens with the right to remain unilingual, i.e. to base their knowledge about multilingual EU law on one language version of a legal act, and still enjoy the certainty of law. The addressees of EU legal acts (especially of regulations that are directly applicable) do not have to acquire competence in a foreign language to understand the laws that apply to them Since this principle requires that all language versions be considered when law is interpreted, it is questionable whether EU citizens can base their knowledge about law only on one language version and whether multilingual law is de facto predictable, especially in the case of discrepancies between language versions These issues are addressed in the last part of the paper, which more closely examines the methods, applied by the Court of Justice of the European Union and national courts when they interpret multilingual EU law
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