There are two major channels for relationships between languages and justice. The first comes about when the justice system issues a ruling on regulations or legal disputes that have arisen with respect to the knowledge and use of languages. The lack of a common language policy in Spain and the inexistence of nation-wide public bodies that could facilitate encounters among the various official languages, as well as the act of reflecting on how to improve the coexistence of languages and stimulate their recognition and use has implied, in practice, that all language conflicts always end up in front of a judge. Furthermore, generally speaking, the justice system has issued rulings on this issue without the sociological reality of languages or their status being incorporated into the proceedings through reports and expert testimony. These elements are undoubtedly essential for the proper weighting of the proportionality of the protective measures approved on behalf of an official minority language. In our country, the second connection arises as a consequence of the official status of two languages in some territories. Of all sectors of public administration, justice is the area that has least progressed, by far, in the use of official languages other than Spanish. And it is no coincidence. Article 231.1 of the Judiciary Act, a corporatist interpretation of the areas of the judiciary that must be regulated by the legislative branch through an implementing law (reserva de ley organica) and a self-interested use of the duty to know Spanish and the right of the parties to not suffer from a denial of due process, explains, to a certain degree, such a marked imbalance. On the other hand, the strict application of territoriality, without any sort of modulation, has meant that neither the Supreme Court or the Constitutional Court have been able to collaborate in the institutional task of enhancing the prestige of all the languages of Spain. The author defends and proposes other interpretation options that might allow for joint state action and consequently, for the existence of a nation-wide public policy for the recognition and valuing of all official languages within the framework of the Constitution and the Statutes currently in effect.
