Brexit, Language Policy and Linguistic Diversity

This book argues that Brexit will wholly re-shape the legal framework and public policy norms relating to linguistic diversity that have dominated public life in the UK and the EU since the Treaty on European Union in 1993. First, Brexit de-anchors the linguistic actors engaged with sub-state nationalisms in the UK (in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland) from the ethno-linguistic imaginary of the so-called ‘Europe of the regions’. This strengthens the case both for the de jure recognition of English as the official language of the UK and for embedding autochthonous minority language rights and freedoms in a transformed UK constitution. Second, Brexit strengthens the normative case for English as the lingua franca of the EU, by reducing the injustices associated with the rise of English as the EU and global lingua franca. The book will appeal to students and scholars across the fields of political science, political theory, law, language policy and planning, and sociolinguistics.

Diarmait Mac Giolla Chriost is Professor in the School of Welsh, Cardiff University, UK. His research has informed the development of law and public policy in several jurisdictions. In 2016 he was visiting scholar at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford.

Matteo Bonotti is Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Monash University, Australia, having previously taught at Cardiff University, Queen’s University Belfast, and the University of Edinburgh. His work has appeared in such journals as the American Political Science Review, the European Journal of Political Theory, Philosophy & Social Criticism, the Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy and the Journal of Social Philosophy. His monograph Partisanship and Political Liberalism in Diverse Societies was published in 2017.