Bilingualism in law in practice: the experience of Belarus and the United Kingdom

Event details

Both the United Kingdom and Belarus have more than one official language. However, while the United Kingdom has a well-developed legislation and practice dealing with multiple languages, Belarus is still at the beginning of this process.

Bilingualism is officially enshrined in the Constitution of Belarus, in practice the Russian dominates and the use of Belarusian by state institutions and other organisations remains inconsistent. This situation undermines the rights of those who want to access public services in their preferred official language and leads to uncertainty when it comes to the level of preparedness which state institutions should have to conduct business in the second official language.

This event will bring together policy-makers and academics from both countries to discuss the practical implementation of bilingualism in Belarus and the use of the UK experience. It will result in developing concrete proposals how to ensure that the rights of people to access legal information and conduct official business in their preferred official language.

Event convened by Prof Yarik Kryvoi, Senior Research Fellow in International Economic Law.

Join in the conversation @BIICL #Bilingualism

Confirmed speakers:

• Aliaksandr Danilevich, Belarusian State University

• Dr Ihar Kapylou, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus
• Yauheni Kavalenka, National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus
  
• Professor Yarik Kryvoi, British Institute of International and Comparative Law
• Professor Aliaksandr Lukashanec, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus
  
• Jacqueline Louise Perkins, British Ambassador to Belarus
• Ales Sasha, National Library of Belarus
  
• Professor Colin Williams, Cambridge University and Cardiff University

      
Pricing and registration

This event is free to attend. 

For more information please click here .