Diritto Pubblico Comparato ed Europeo

Sommario

1. Identità europea e principio multiculturale. – 2. Evoluzione del principio di eguaglianza e riconoscimento dei diritti culturali. – 3. L’influenza della normativa internazionale sulla formulazione della Costituzione europea. – 4. La portata normativa dell’art. II-82 della Costituzione europea. – 5. La tutela delle differenze culturali da parte degli Stati appartenenti all’Unione europea. – 6. I principali meccanismi di valorizzazione delle differenze linguistiche.

Abstract

Multiculturalism is a key concept to understand the institutional development of contemporary legal systems. The 19th Century was characterized by the creation of the Nation-State while the 20th century witnessed the development of multinational States. The 21st century may be remembered for multicultural legal systems where different nationalities coexist. This process seems to be taking place in the European Union as well. In fact, the EU is shaping a new identity, replacing a primarily economic nature (represented by the single currency, by the principle of competition and the stability agreement) with a more constitutional one. This constitutional evolution should be based on the acceptance and respect for cultural pluralism. The cultural heritage of Europe is the combination of different populations, languages and traditions. The article focuses on the constitutional and legislative provisions related to the protection of linguistic rights both at a European and at a domestic level. The article stresses the different types of relationship between linguistic pluralism and the organization of public power and proposes a classification based on whether the Constitution grants the status of co-official language to minority languages or, on the contrary only recognizes them as an expression of their cultural heritage.