The understanding of law as communication in multilingual and bilingual contexts

What is it about?

The article deals with the concept of law as linguistic communication. It adds the crucial dimension of communication in multilingual context, often neglected in the literature on Jurisprudence. It compares the multilingual context of the EU and the bilingual, official, semi-official and non-official context in the three major territories of the Basque Country. It deals with language status, language policy and the issue of identity.

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Why is it important?

Normally studies on the theory of law as (semiotic ) communication have neglected multilingual contexts. This article contributes in this field. The article also finds and explains a paradox in the EU, which gives enormous importance to multilingualism and yet has not incorporated this dimension into its constitutional identity. This is in contrast to the Basque Country, where official status and resources are much smaller but language identity is profound.

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