The historical overview of the attitudes of English-language legal systems to non-English speakers shows how English law changed from an overtly multilingual system to one which became resolutely monoglot. The switch from multilingualism to monolingualism was neither abrupt nor smooth, and on the numerous occasions on which legislative efforts were made to achieve it, it was always controversial. The article shows that both the early multilingualism and the subsequent switch to monolingualism were highly emotive issues. It argues that the legacy of this historical emotiveness about multilingual issues in the law is maintained and reflected in the confusion in respect to the entitlement to and provision of interpretation for those who do not fall within the monolingual culture of the law.