National Court in Estonia on Language Law amendments

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 12:27:35 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: National Court in Estonia on Language Law amendments

From: MINELRES moderator  <[email protected]>

Original sender: Andrei Arjupin  <[email protected]>

National Court in Estonia on Language Law amendments


05.03.1998 the National Court of Estonian Republic resolved the
long-time legal conflict between the President of Estonia and the
Parliament. As the ground of the confrontation were the amendments
to the Law on Language (details see MINELRES 07.01.1998).

The National Court has declared the Law about amendments to the
Law on Language unconstitutional. The Court found that the
Parliament has not right to delegate an establishment of the
requirements for the language examination to the Government and
local self-governments. Only the law may determine such requirements.
According to the decision, amendments to the Law on language give
to the Government disproportional warrants to define and control the
knowledge of the state language by the representatives of legislative
power. Thus, this situation is in contradiction  with the principle of

separate and balanced powers.

In the meantime, The National Court emphasised that usage and
defence of the Estonian language is the goal of the Estonian
Constitution and state power has to secure its enforcement. In other
words, any steps ensuring the usage of Estonian language
are approved constitutionally.

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