Legal Languages in Contact: EU Legislative Drafting and Its Consequences for Judicial Interpretation

• Autores: Agnieszka Biernacka
• Localización: Language and Law: the Role of Language and Translation in EU Competition Law / Silvia Marino (ed. lit.), Łucja Biel (ed. lit.), Martina Bajčić (ed. lit.), Vilelmini Sosoni (ed. lit.), 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-90905-9, págs. 163-178
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • “United in diversity”—the motto of the European Union (EU)—points out the paradoxes both drafters and interpreters of EU law cope with. On the one hand, diversity (including diversity of cultures and languages) is respected and protected by EU law. On the other hand, EU law is required to be applied uniformly in all Member States, thus creating the union of languages and cultures. The chapter investigates how this paradoxical combination of diversity and unity is obtained by means of language use during legislative drafting and judicial interpretation processes. In particular, the analysis focuses on whether linguistic equality can be attained when EU law is drafted and interpreted. If all EU official languages are in use throughout the legislative process, and none of them has a dominant position, especially, none of them influences radically the wording of other language versions, then all language versions of an EU legal act should equally shape the meaning of this act. Consequently, the unity reflected in the uniform interpretation of EU law (the same meaning of all language versions of an EU legal act in all Member States) can be achieved through linguistic diversity manifested in the multilingual nature of EU legislation.