[lg policy] Constitutional Court declares unconstitutional language law of Kivalov-Kolesnichenko

[Harold Schiffman]

 [image: Constitutional Court declares unconstitutional language law of
Kivalov-Kolesnichenko]
Constitutional Court declares unconstitutional language law of
Kivalov-Kolesnichenko
28.02.2018 15:30
471
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine has adopted a decision stipulating that
the law on the principles of the state language policy passed in 2012 is
recognized as not complying with the Constitution of Ukraine, an employee
of the Constitutional Court has told Ukrinform.

"The Constitutional Court, at a meeting on February 28, declared
unconstitutional the so-called language law of 'Kivalov-Kolesnichenko,'" he
said.

At the same time, a report posted on the website of the Constitutional
Court notes that on February 28, at a plenary meeting of the Grand Chamber
of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the Constitutional Court adopted
decision No. 2-r/2018 in the case on a constitutional motion from 57 MPs
regarding compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutionality)
of the law on Ukraine on the state language policy.

As reported, the law on the principles of the state language policy, which
was submitted by MPs Vadym Kolesnichenko and Serhiy Kivalov, was approved,
signed and came into force in 2012. In February 2014, the Verkhovna Rada
abolished the law on regional languages, but after that then Acting
President Oleksandr Turchynov refused to sign this decision.

So the law is still valid. The law provides for the possibility of official
bilingualism in regions where the number of national minorities exceeds 10%.

The approval of this law in 2012 resulted in rallies and protests. After
the entry into force of the law, a number of regional and local councils
recognized Russian as a regional language. In addition, Hungarian, Moldovan
and Romanian were recognized as regional languages in the western regions.

Fifty-seven deputies demanded in 2014 that the Constitutional Court declare
unconstitutional the law of Kivalov-Kolesnichenko.

In December 2017, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine moved to the closed
part of a plenary meeting for further discussion and adoption of the
decision on the constitutional motion.


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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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