OFFICIAL, NATIONAL, COMMON OR UNIFYING: Do WORDS GIVING LEGAL STATUS to LANGUAGE DIMINISH LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS?
OFFICIAL, NATIONAL, COMMON OR UNIFYING: Do WORDS GIVING LEGAL STATUS TO LANGUAGE DIMINISH LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS? Paul Conor Hale* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ......................................... 222 II. LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW ......... 226 III. THE UNITED STATES, THE EUROPEAN UNION, AND LANGUAGE LAWS ....................................... 232 A. Linguistic Rights and the United States ................... 232 B. Language Laws and the European Union ................. 237 C. Unity in Diversity and the Melting Pot .................... 245 IV. IMMIGRATION: THE U.S. AND MEXICO, THE EU AND THE MAGHREB .................................. 248 V . CONCLUSION ........................................... 254 * J.D., University of Georgia, 2008; B.A., Louisiana Scholars' College at Northwestern State University, 2004. GA. J. INT'L & COMP. L. (Vol. 36:221 " 6an ofendadon . de homo pro tio, ke li apartenas al alia gento, alia lingvo, alia religio au alia socia klaso ol mi, mi rigardaskiel barbarecon."' - Ludoviko Zamenhof I. INTRODUCTION In simple sociolinguistic terms, "[l]anguage is used for transmitting information from one person to another."2 However, successful communication of any information depends not only on the capabilities of the speaker, but also the comprehension of his or her audience. A Danish minister, Ms. Helle Degn, was newly appointed to her position when she chose to forego a translator and speak English at an international meeting. Confident in her linguistic ability because of over 10,000 hours of education in the language, she apologized for her unfamiliarity with a subject with an explanatory declaration: " 'I'm at the beginning of my period.' "' Sociolinguist Ralph Fasold explains that beyond communicating information, "a speaker is using language to make statements about who she is, what her group loyalties are, how she perceives her relationship to her 4 hearers, and what sort of speech event she considers herself to be engaged in." In the context of an international speech event, Ms.
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