From linguistics to litigation: Reflections on the legal aspects of reversing language shift
Résumé
The Corsican language is in a paradoxical situation characterized, on the one hand, by a decline in its use which is directly related to strong political action by the French Republic in favour of a complete centralization of the language in the country – which began in the middle of the nineteenth century as regards Corsica in particular – and, on the other hand, by a strong political desire, expressed by a large majority of the population and carried out by the Corsican Assembly, to initiate a real program of linguistic revitalization in order to grant the language of the island an official status. This situation enlightens the linguistic tension hidden behind the official monolingualism that the French Constitution enacts. It constitutes a real challenge for the State, on both political and legal grounds. This article expounds, from a political and legal point of view, especially in municipal, international and European law, the different obstacles such a desire for a revitalization will encounter, as well as the potential legal disputes that could emerge from it, on the base of the European Convention on Human Rights or European Union law.