scholarly journals Le régime juridique des langues dans l'administration publique au Nouveau-Brunswick

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-113
Author(s):  
Pierre Foucher ◽  
Gérard Snow

Linguistic rights in New Brunswick have progressed since the enactment of the Official Languages of New Brunswick Act of 1969. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has caused the entrenchment of some linguistic guarantees in the Constitution and has provided for judicial enforcement. Collective rights have also been given legislative sanction through the passing, in 1981, of An Act Recognizing the Equality of the Two Official Linguistic Communities in New Brunswick, and new legislation to replace the 1969 Act has now been proposed in a recent government-sponsored study. This paper looks at the legal consequences of these enactments in relation to public administration in New Brunswick.

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 455-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Bastarache

The principles that an Act Recognizing the Equality of the Two Official Linguistic Communities in New Brunswick would incorporate in the laws would be better put in the preamble to a constitution, because of their symbolic and educational value. They comprise two possible fundamental protections : the first is protection against discrimination (or the entrenchment of formal equality) ; the second is protection against assimilation (or resultant equality). It is this second objective which stresses the need for the recognition of collective rights in New Brunswick, such as the right to distinct social, educational and cultural institutions and, by implication, the need for the most advanced form of autonomy possible for each distinct linguistic community. One may wonder whether the Act gives the courts of New Brunswick a clear enough indication of the objectives of the Legislature to allow them to put aside the restrictive concept of equality developed in the interpretation of human rights legislation in Canada ? It would seem that the preamble to the Act limits its purpose to a declaration of principle. This legislative intent is best demonstrated by the fact that no section giving a right of action to citizens is included. The Act also has some very important limitations that result from various difficulties of interpretation. These difficulties are enhanced by the fact that the Act itself is not constitutional in nature. Section 1 borrows its language from Section 2 of the Official Languages Act of Canada, this section having been interpreted in a positive but uncertain way in Air Canada v. Joyal. Given the fact that the purpose of the Act, as set out in the preamble, is to create a set of political principles for the government of New Brunswick, it is difficult to see where it could be given a wider interpretation than the Canadian Bill of Rights with regard to the term « equality ». Whatever success was obtained in the courts has depended on the fact that the rights set out were in each instance very clear. Section 2 is the most difficult to understand because it gives no indication as to the means through which the government of New Brunswick is to ensure equality between the linguistic communities. The reference to distinct institutions is extremely uncertain and could only be given some legal force if the courts were to recognize that they have the duty to determine the true meaning of the section in a discretionary manner. But here the Act does not provide for any sanction and reflects the intention of creating declaratory legislation only. Section 3 is more or less a declaration of intent. The problem raised by the adoption of Acts of a declaratory nature was raised last year in the Forest case. The difficulty is that the declaratory judgment does not generally constitute an order given to the government or the Legislature to act in a specific way. In the United States, the Courts of Equity found that they could take into consideration the common interest in deciding whether there were obstacles to a mandatory order resulting from the application of declaratory legislation. In Canada, the courts have been very timid. One might ask whether the Act is likely to bring about a better understanding between the two linguistic communities of New Brunswick. Politically, it is obvious that the Act will not provide a true framework for political change. Legally, it can be said without doubt that the Act will not create any rights or bring about an era of judicial interventionism. However, even an implicit adoption of the concept of collective rights could mark a turning point in the relationship between the two linguistic communities in New Brunswick.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
S. V. Yarkovoy ◽  

The article analyzes the norms of the current federal legislation governing the procedure for non-judicial and judicial review (cancellation, recognition as illegal or invalid) of enforcement acts of executive authorities and other public administration bodies. The Author notes the absence of a unified legal mechanism for the mentioned types of revision and points out the need for its development and consolidation in the federal administrative-procedural legislation. In order to formulate unified general rules for revising administrative enforcement acts, the necessity of solving a number of crucial issues of the theory of illegality (invalidity) of such acts, in particular, their invalidity and viability, defining criteria for their legal assessment, methods and legal consequences of their cancellation, is substantiated and possible answers are offered to these questions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (100) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Vicenta Tasa Fuster

Resumen:Este trabajo pretende dar una visión general del reconocimiento de la diversidad lingüística española que se deriva de la Constitución. Nos referimos exclusivamente a las lenguas autóctonas históricamente habladas en España; teniendo en cuenta, además, que una misma lengua puede recibir diversas denominaciones populares y oficiales.Partiendo de estas premisas, el trabajo estudia el reconocimiento que hace la Constitución Española de la diversidad lingüística en España en su artículo 3. Se subraya en el estudio que, en dicho artículo de la Constitución se establece que el castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado y que todos los españoles tienen el deber de conocerla y el derecho a usarla (art. 3.1), que las otras lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas comunidades autónomas, en función de la regulación que hagan sus estatutos (art. 3.2) y que España considera que la riqueza de las diferentes modalidades lingüísticas esun patrimonio cultural que deberá tener un respeto y una protección especiales (art. 3.3).El contenido de la Constitución, la jurisprudencia constitucional de las últimas cuatro décadas y los estatutos de autonomía y legislación lingüística autonómica, han asentado un reconocimiento de la diversidad lingüística española y de los derechos lingüísticos concretos de los hablantes de las distintas lenguas españolas fundamentado en el principio de jerarquía lingüística y no en los de seguridad lingüística e igualdad de derechos lingüísticos. El principio de jerarquía lingüística presupone considerar que existen unas lenguas que deben tener un reconocimiento legal y oficial superior a otras. Y, lo que es lo mismo, que los derechos lingüísticos de sus hablantes no tienen el mismo grado de reconocimiento. Llegándose a dar el caso que, en España, una misma lengua pueda llegar a tener diferentes niveles de reconocimiento legal-oficial y un número aún mayor de políticas lingüísticas que traten de convertir en una realidad substantiva todos o una parte de los derechos lingüísticos reconocidos formalmente a los hablantes de una lengua diferente del castellano en una comunidad autónoma.Así las cosas, se constata que legalmente una lengua (castellano) tiene una situación de preeminencia legal-oficial, seis lenguas españolas (catalán, gallego, vasco, occitano, aragonés y asturleonés) tienen algún tipo de reconocimiento oficial en parte del territorio en el que son habladas de manera autóctona, una lengua tiene reconocimiento político (tamazight), otra tiene un reconocimiento administrativo menor en Cataluña (caló), y tres lenguas autóctonas no tienen el más mínimo reconocimiento legal, político o administrativo (árabe, haquetia yportugués). El trabajo estudia detalladamente y de manera global la estructuración de la jerarquía lingüística en la legislación española derivadade la Constitución y concluye con una descripción de los seis niveles de jerarquía lingüística y de derechos lingüísticos que existen en España. Se defiende, finalmente, un cambio sistema lingüístico legalconstitucional que respete los principios de seguridad lingüística y el principio de igualdad de derechos lingüísticos de todos los ciudadanos españoles. Summary:1. Introduction. The Constitution and the Spanish languages. 2.Language in the statutes of monolingual communities. 3. Linguisticdiversity in multilingual communities with a single official language.4. Communities with co-officiality. 5. Final considerations: a hierarchicalrecognition. 6. Bibliography cited. Abstract:This paper is an overview of the recognition of the Spanish linguistic diversity derived from the Constitution. We refer exclusively to the native languages historically spoken in Spain; about that is important to know that the same language can receive diverse popular and official denominations.With these premises, the work studies the recognition in the article 3 of the Spanish Constitution of the linguistic diversity in Spain. It is emphasized in the study that this article establishes that the Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State and that all Spaniards have the duty to know it and the right to use it (article 3.1), that the other Spanish languages would be official in the respective autonomous communities, depending on the regulation made by their statutes of autonomy (article 3.2 ), and that Spain considers the richness of the different linguistic modalities a cultural heritage that must have special respect and protection (article 3.3).The content of the Constitution, the constitutional jurisprudence of the last four decades and the statutes of autonomy and autonomous linguistic legislation, have established a recognition of the Spanish linguistic diversity and of the specific linguistic rights of the speakers of the different Spanish languages based on the principle of linguistic hierarchy and not in those of linguistic security and equality of linguistic rights. The principle of linguistic hierarchy considers that there are some languages that have to have a legal and official recognitionsuperior to others. And, what is the same, that the linguistic rights of its speakers do not have the same degree of recognition. In Spain, the same language may have different levels of legal-official recognition and a lot of linguistic policies in the autonomous communities that try to be reality all or part of the linguistic rights formally recognized to speakers of a language other than Castilian. So it is verified that legally a language (Castilian) has a situation oflegal-official preeminence, six Spanish languages (Catalan, Galician, Basque, Occitan, Aragonese and Asturian) have some type of official recognition in part of the territory where are spoken, one language has political recognition (Tamazight), another has a lower administrative recognition in Catalonia (Caló), and three indigenous languages do not have the least legal, political or administrative recognition (Arabic, Hachetia and Portuguese).The paper studies in detail the structure of the linguistic hierarchy in Spanish legislation derived from the Constitution and concludes with a description of the six levels of linguistic hierarchy and of linguistic rights that exist in Spain. Finally, it defends a legal-constitutional linguistic system that respects the principles of linguistic security and of equality of linguistic rights of all Spanish citizens.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (260) ◽  
pp. 15-36
Author(s):  
Lluís Català-Oltra ◽  
Clemente Penalva-Verdú

Abstract The Valencian autonomous community is a bilingual Spanish region where, alongside Spanish, a second language is officially recognized. Yet in many areas of the Valencian administration the language law is not implemented. This article explores the presence of the two official languages in the electronic communications of this region’s city and town council agencies. It combines a variety of methods (use of secondary data, content analysis and a variation of the “mystery shopping” technique) with statistical analysis of data merged into a unit matrix of 397 municipalities. A comparison of present web page data with data from 2005 to 2010 reveals that there has been advancement on the implementation of legal provisions: Spanish monolingual web pages are being replaced by bilingual portals. Evidence also shows a greater presence of Valencian in the official social media accounts and in telephone and email interactions. However, the use of Spanish on public administration websites is still prevalent. Likewise, this study confirms the significant power of the social use of language, influenced in part by the political party in power.


1984 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Thomas Flanagan

There is a strong movement toward legal abolition of fixed-age retirement in Canada. Quebec passed a special statute for that purpose in 1982. Human rights legislation has been interpreted to that effect in Manitoba and is tending in that direction in New Brunswick. Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms will probably have the same result for all of Canada, once it comes into effect on April 17, 1985. This poses a novel challenge to Canadian universities, for retirement of professors at 65 is well entrenched. Several factors justify the existing practice, including the institution of tenure, the professorial pay schedule, and the need for intellectual rejuvenation. However, the arguments are unlikely to prevail against judicial interpretation of the Charter and of human rights legislation. Thus universities should now consider the ramifications. Possible measures include facilitation of early retirement, modification of pension and benefit plans, and more systematic assessment of academic staff throughout their entire careers.


2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-238
Author(s):  
D’Iberville Fortier

The Commissioner of Official Languages presents the evolution of linguistic rights from the time of Confederation up to the period of the Quiet Revolution in Québec. This survey dwells upon guarantees granted to linguistic minorities in Canada. At the Federal level of government, the author describes the consequences of the Royal Commission of Enquiry on Bilingualism and Biculturalism : The Official Languages Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. At the provincial level of government, he draws up an overall account of the factual integration of these laws. His observations lead him to conclude that Canada will never be a homogeneous country with regard to linguistic rights and that minority aid systems are deficient. As a solution, the author underscores the timeliness of Federal-provincial arrangements with a view to creating specific development projects for official language minorities in accordance with local needs, but founded upon a common basis.


2021 ◽  
Vol IV (IV) ◽  
pp. 49-76
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Kaszubowski

The title to perpetual usufruct is regulated under Articles 232 to 243 of the Civil Code and in the Act of 21 August 1997 on Real Property Management. One of the characteristic features of this right is the obligation, on the part of the perpetual usufructuary, to pay an annual fee. The Act on Real Property Management prescribes that this fee may be updated by the competent public administration body acting on behalf of the real property owner. An analysis of provisions regulating the proceedings initiated by the filing of the notice of adjustment of the existing fee leads to the conclusion that the regulation in question is neither precise, nor clear. An additional difficulty lies in non-specification of legal consequences for a defective adjustment of the existing fee. This article puts forward a proposal for a solution to the most important practical difficulties associated with adjustment of the existing annual fee for perpetual usufruct.


1970 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 478
Author(s):  
Robert W. Kerr

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-67
Author(s):  
Michel Bastarache

This article outlines the different attempts over the years to secure the status of the French language in legal proceedings in New Brunswick. A 1968 opinion reiterated rulings dating from 1650 and 1784 that English is the applicable language in all proceedings at the provincial level. Subsequent rulings have modified the state of events but in most cases on paper only. In 1980, the New Brunswick Association of Lawyers set up an investigative commitee whose tasks were to identify any inherent problems in the use of French in provincial courts and to find a way of integrating the two official languages into New Brunswick's legal practice with as little animosity as possible. The publication of the committee's report led to new legislative measures assuring the implantation of bilingualism in its provincial courts. Although legislators had hoped for speedier implementation of the measures, it is important to keep in mind the difficult context in which these changes are taking place. A change in attitude is apparently necessary before the transformation is complete.


2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-249
Author(s):  
Iryna Ulasiuk ◽  
Laurentiu Hadirca

Linguistic rights and their implications for societal cohesion and state stability, have been recognized as a core component in the conflict prevention work of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe High Commissioner on National Minorities (osce hcnm). Linguistic and associated rights proved a challenge in many osce Participating States, and the hcnm repeatedly advised the relevant authorities on how to secure a fair balance between the promotion of the state language and the protection of linguistic minority rights. This article overviews the advice which the successive hcnms have throughout the years put forward on two key areas touching upon the linguistic rights of national minorities – namely, the use of languages in relations with the public administration, and the supervision and enforcement of linguistic requirements – and analyses how this advice aligns with the recommendations put forward by other international actors and institutions working on minority rights and minority issues.


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