The Paradox of a Babel “United in Diversity”

Law and Language in the European Union

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 (on product labels or as a condition for employment, for example), as such regulation can interfere with the rights accorded to citizens of other Member States to participate in free commercial movement throughout the Union. The European Court of Justice has developed a jurisprudence in cases involving such infringements in which concern for the free movement of goods and workers has failed to allow for an appropriate regard for the humanistic principles that also, and to a growing extent, form part of Europe’s legal culture. In these cases, as well as in the disputes regarding language use within the EU’s own organs, there has been substantial friction between the competing goals of achieving an economically integrated union on the one hand and honoring the distinctive cultures and languages of individual Member States (and their citizens) on the other. Endeavoring to achieve both of these aims, the new Constitution for Europe promises a Union that will be “united in diversity.” This book examines how, in the linguistic realm, the EU has responded to the tensions that lie behind this paradoxical motto.


About the author
Richard L. Creech is an attorney and language scholar with an interest in the interaction of linguistic and legal systems. He has a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from Harvard University and a juris doctorate degree from the Northwestern University School of Law. In 2002 he received an LL M degree in International and European Law at the University of Utrecht, where he submitted a master’s thesis that became the basis for this book. He lives and works in Washington, DC, where he assists clients involved in international and multilingual litigation and other legal proceedings.

• ISBN: 9076871434
• Publisher: Europa Law Publishing
• Author: Richard L. Creech
• Language: English
• Type: Hardback

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