Language policy success under judicial pressure: lessons from the Basque language normalisation process

This article examines recent developments in Basque language normalisation through the lens of language policy, sociolinguistic asymmetry and judicial intervention. It analyses how legal challenges to institutional language planning reshape the scope of public action in multilingual contexts, often relying on formal notions of equality and co-officiality that overlook existing power imbalances between languages. While grounded in the Basque case, the analysis speaks to wider questions relevant to other minoritised language communities facing similar pressures across contemporary liberal democracies.

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Publication Details

Journal
Eurac Research Blogs
Published
2026-02-02
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57708/bmt-4j8itrnumpktdf7gozw
Primary Topic
Multilingual Education and Policy
Type
article
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article

Language policy success under judicial pressure: lessons from the Basque language normalisation process

Laura Sainz Gomez
Eurac Research Blogs
Multilingual Education and Policy
article

Language policy success under judicial pressure: lessons from the Basque language normalisation process

Laura Sainz Gomez
article en

Abstract

This article examines recent developments in Basque language normalisation through the lens of language policy, sociolinguistic asymmetry and judicial intervention. It analyses how legal challenges to institutional language planning reshape the scope of public action in multilingual contexts, often relying on formal notions of equality and co-officiality that overlook existing power imbalances between languages. While grounded in the Basque case, the analysis speaks to wider questions relevant to other minoritised language communities facing similar pressures across contemporary liberal democracies.

Eurac Research Blogs
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Multilingual Education and Policy
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