JĘZYK W KONSTYTUCJACH WYBRANYCH PAŃSTW EUROPEJSKICH
Language in Constitutions of Selected European Countries

Summary/Abstract: Since the end of the Second World War the process of European integration together with democratization of relationships between state as an institution and citizens and/or groups of citizens have caused an introduction of clauses associated with language into the legal systems of the majority of European countries. It has been connected with identity protection of the countries belonging to the European Union on the one hand, and with the common though undeveloped recognition of autonomies for ethnic and language minorities, which included cherishing and developing their own language and culture, on the other. Constitutional clauses' analysis let the author distinguish the following approaches to the language issue: linguistically neutral (like Germany); extremely monolingual (France); moderately monolingual, considering the autonomies of minorities (e.g. Austria, Spain, Poland) and multilingual according to the general program (e.g. Belgium, Finland, Switzerland).

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