Cover not available
Part of
Advances in Interdisciplinary Language Policy
Edited by François Grin, László Marácz and Nike K. Pokorn
[Studies in World Language Problems 9] 2022
► pp. 361–380

Chapter 18
Justifying language policies in mobile societies

| Durham University
| University of Limerick
A conception of linguistic justice refers to a set of moral principles that can provide guidance about a society’s language policies. By the lights of a recently prominent strand of liberal political theory, such a conception will be legitimate if and only if it meets certain standards of public justification. Amongst other things, this means that it must be arrived at by way of a legitimate procedure and its principles must be ones that no one could reasonably reject. This chapter explores the potential of this ideal for mobile and multilingual societies in Europe by developing three arguments. First, we argue that in order to be legitimate, a conception of linguistic justice must be justifiable to a relevant constituency and that, in EU member states, this includes mobile Europeans as well as the citizens of member states. Second, we argue that, in circumstances of linguistic diversity, the requirements of public justification generate a presumption in favour of multilingual deliberative procedures. Third, we argue that when selecting principles of justice we ought to prioritise the interests of the least advantaged, and that doing so will often mean that only a multilingual language regime is acceptable.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Mobility and inclusion in linguistic justice
  • 3.Key concepts and tools
  • 4.Liberalism and the justification of language policies
    • 4.1To whom must a conception of linguistic justice be justified?
    • 4.2What constitutes fair access to public deliberation in multilingual societies?
    • 4.3What normative constraints does contractualism impose on the selection of a language regime?
      • Reasonable rejection and the priority view
      • Assessing the distributive effects of language regimes
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 21 January 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/wlp.9.18car
References
Barry, Brian
(1996) Justice as Impartiality. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Bonotti, Matteo
(2016) Political Liberalism, Linguistic Diversity and Equal Treatment. Politics, Philosophy & Economics 13, 189–214.Google Scholar
Carens, Joseph
(2000) Culture, Citizenship and Community. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carey, Brian
(2019) The preference satisfaction model of linguistic advantage. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 22(2), 134–154. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carey
(2020) The Language of Public Reason. Journal of Social Philosophy. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Schutter, Helder
forthcoming). Linguistic Pluralism.
Fidrmuc, Jan, Ginsburgh, Victor & Weber, Shlomo
(2010) ‘Scenarios beyond unanimity: Could a qualified majority of Member States alleviate the burden of multilingualism in Europe?’, in D. Hanf, K. Malacek & E. Muir (Eds.), Langues et construction européenne (pp. 259–227). Brussels: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Gaus, Gerald
(2011) The Order of Public Reason: A Theory of Freedom and Morality in a Diverse and Bounded World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gazzola, Michele
(2016) Multilingual communication for whom? Language policy and fairness in the European Union. European Union Politics 17(4), 546–569. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gazzola, Michele & Ronza, Rocco W.
(2018) The Politics and Policy of Multilingualism in the European Union. Brown Journal of World Affairs 25(1), 55–66.Google Scholar
Ginsburgh, Victor & Weber, Shlomo
(2005) Language disenfranchisement in the European Union. Journal of Common Market Studies 43(2), 273–286. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grin, François
(2003) ‘Diversity as paradigm, analytical device, and policy goal’, in W. Kymlicka & A. Patten (Eds.), Language Rights and Political Theory (pp. 169–188). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, Will
(1995) Multicultural Citizenship. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Laborde, Cécile
(2017) Liberalism’s Religion. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Parfit, Derek
(1997) Equality and priority. Ratio 10(3), 202–221. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Patten, Alan
(2014) Equal Recognition: The Moral Foundations of Minority Rights. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Peled, Yael
(2018) ‘Toward an Adaptive Approach to Linguistic Justice: Three Paradoxes’, in M. Gazzola, T. Templin & B.-A. Wickstrom (Eds.), Language Policy and Linguistic Justice: Economic, Philosophical and Sociolinguistic Approaches (pp. 173–88). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peled, Yael & Bonotti, Matteo
(2016) Tongue-Tied: Rawls, Political Philosophy and Metalinguistic Awareness. American Political Science Review 110(4), 798–811. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peter, Fabienne
(2017) ‘Political Legitimacy’, in E. N. Zalta (Ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from: [URL] (accessed on 11/2/2021)
Pool, Jonathan
(1991) The official language problem. American Political Science Review 85(2), 495–551. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1996) Optimal language regimes for the European Union. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 121(1), 159–179. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Quong, Jonathan
(2011) Liberalism Without Perfection. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John
(1996) Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
(1999) A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rubio-Marín, Ruth
(2003) ‘Language rights: Exploring the competing rationales’, in W. Kymlicka & A. Patten (Eds.), Language Rights and Political Theory (pp. 52–73). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Scanlon, Thomas. M.
(1982) ‘Contractualism and utilitarianism’, in A. Sen & B. Williams (Eds.), Utilitarianism and beyond (pp. 103–128). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1998) What we owe to each other. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Shorten, Andrew
(2017) Four Conceptions of Linguistic Disadvantage. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 38, 607–621. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2018) ‘Justice in the Linguistic Environment: Narrow or Wide?’, in M. Gazzola, T. Templin & B.-A. Wickstrom (Eds.), Language Policy and Linguistic Justice: Economic, Philosophical and Sociolinguistic Approaches (pp. 153–72). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Parijs, Phillippe
(2011) Linguistic Justice for All. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar