Meital Pinto (Carmel Academic Center – Law School) has posted Taking Language Rights Seriously (Meital Pinto, Taking Language Rights Seriously, 25 KLJ 231–254 (2014)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
It is commonly argued that language rights bare unique features that distinguish them from fundamental human rights, and justify interpreting them with judicial restraint. I identify three such alleged features, and show that they subsist in other rights, particularly religious freedom. I argue that since these other rights are justifiably deemed fundamental human rights that should be generously interpreted, so should language rights. I identify a novel claim for the restrained approach, according to which only language rights impose a cultural burden on majority members, but I argue that this burden is not sufficiently heavy to justify treating them differently.