Bilingual Higher Education in the Legal Context - (Paperback)

About the Book

The aim of this book is to document the experiences of institutions and states that are implementing bilingual higher education policies in the legal context, to identify the different approaches and to suggest some of the likely areas for future theoretical development. It examines the role of higher education language policies (medium-of-instruction policies in higher education) in mediating the tension between on the one hand the centralizing forces of stated-mandated policies and globalisation and demands for language rights by ethnic and linguistic minorities on the other.

Book Synopsis

This book is devoted to complex questions of building and developing legal education in more than one language, through two state languages (French and Dutch in Belgium, German and French in Switzerland, English and French in Canada, Finnish and Swedish in Finland) and/or through the medium of minority or lesser used languages (Basque, Galician, Catalan, Welsh, Romanian). Some states have a long and well-established tradition of bilingual legal education; others have only recently started to develop a legal education system through non-dominant languages; finally, in some other cases only partial bilingual legal education obtains, rather than a fuller model. The volume purports to examine best practices and to draw useful lessons from the experiences of other bilingual societies.

Review Quotes

"The book is useful for a variety of readers interested in the topic of linguistic diversity, such as scholars researching language law in the field of education, and those interested in building and developing institutions of higher education dealing with language issues - as this may become a widespread concern, especially with the emergence of English as a lingua franca and the aforementioned expectations about Europeanization and internationalization of educational institutions. It is rarely possible to consider all the aspects of a new field of research. The greatest contribution of this anthology may be indeed to have structured for the first time some vital concerns about language policy in higher education institutions. For that alone, this book is definitively worth reading." - Silvia Adamo, in: Common Market Law Review, vol. 50, Issue 2 (2013), pp. 656-659
"...Dieser Zwiespalt zwischen der Forderung nach (und der effektiven Notwendigkeit an) einer wirksamen juristischen Mehrsprachigkeit in weiten Teilen Europas und den gleichzeitigen Grenzen der Realisierbarkeit dieses Vorhabens wird weiter bestehen und mit der wachsenden Sensibilität für ein "gerechtes Verfahren" einerseits und die Entwicklung einer echten europäischen Rechtskultur andererseits auch weiter zunehmen. Diesen Konflikt zu verstehen und vielleicht auch in Ansätzen zu beheben, bedarf es detaillierter Studien. Der von Xabier Arzoz herausgegebene Band kann dazu eine wichtige Pionierrolle erfüllen." - Peter Hilpold, in: Europa Ethnica, Vol. 70, 3/4 (2013), p. 121
"In all, the volume is rich in analysis and covers a multitude of scenarios (including non-European ones) and expands existing knowledge in this under-researched topic within the field of minority language rights. The initiative of Arzoz is therefore highly welcome." - José-María Arraiza, in: Europäisches Journal für Minderheitenfragen, 7, 2 (2014), pp. 154-165

About the Author

Xabier Arzoz is Senior Lecturer of Administrative and EU Law at the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao. He has authored over sixty works on Spanish and European administrative law, linguistic diversity and language rights, fundamental rights, and federalism and autonomy.