Toubon Law

Last updated

The Law as published in the Journal Officiel de la Republique Francaise JO199411392.png
The Law as published in the Journal Officiel de la République Française

The Toubon Law (full name: law 94-665 of 4 August 1994 relating to usage of the French language ) is a French law mandating the use of the French language in official government publications, in all advertisements, in all workplaces, in commercial contracts, in some other commercial communication contexts, in all government-financed schools, and some other contexts. [1]

Contents

The law does not concern private, non-commercial communications, such as non-commercial web publications by private bodies. It does not concern books, films, public speeches, and other forms of communications not constituting commercial activity. However, the law mandates the use of the French language in all broadcast audiovisual programs, with exceptions for musical works and "original version" films. [2] Broadcast musical works are subject to quota rules under a related law whereby a minimum percentage of television shows and 35% [3] of songs on the radio must be in the French language. [2]

The law takes its common name from Jacques Toubon, who was Minister of Culture when it was passed, and who proposed the law to the National Assembly of France. A nickname is Loi Allgood– "Allgood" is a morpheme-for-morpheme translation of "Toubon" into English ("All Good" being a translation of "Tout bon") – as the law can largely be considered to have been enacted in reaction to the increasing usage of English in advertisements and other areas in France. As the law sought to strengthen French as the dominant language within the country and its territories, the law also 'came under considerable attack from the European Commission which regarded its provisions as particularly offensive to the concept of free competition across national borders.' [4]

Provisions of the law

One broad provision of the law applying to workplaces is that "any document that contains obligations for the employee or provisions whose knowledge is necessary for the performance of one's work must be written in French." Among other things, this means that computer software developed outside France must have its user interface and instruction manuals translated into French to be legally used by companies in France. The law includes an exception that "these provisions do not apply to documents coming from abroad", but this exception has been interpreted narrowly by the appellate courts. For example, in 2006 a French subsidiary of a US company was given a hefty fine for delivering certain highly technical documents and software interfaces to its employees in the English language only, and this was upheld by the appellate court. [5] [6]

Another broad provision of the law is that it makes it mandatory for commercial advertisements and public announcements to be given in French. This does not rule out advertisements made in a foreign language: it is sufficient to provide a translation in a footnote. This was justified as a measure for the protection of the consumer. Additionally, product packaging must be in French, though, again, translation in multiple languages can be provided.

A similar restriction—though implemented by primary legislation regulations and not as application of the Loi Toubon—applies to product labeling: product labels should be intelligible and in French, though additional languages may be present. [7] Some linguistic restrictions on product labeling were found to be incompatible with European law, [8] particularly the directives concerning the freedom of movement of goods within the European Union. The French government then issued interpretation notes and amended regulations in order to comply. [9]

In another provision, the law specifies obligations for public legal persons (government administrations, et al.), mandating the use of French in publications, or at least in summaries of publications. In France, it is a constitutional requirement that the public should be informed of the action of the government. Since the official language of France is French, it follows that the French public should be able to get official information in French.

Under the Toubon law, schools that do not use French as the medium of instruction are ineligible for government funding. This excludes the Breton language schools of Brittany. [10] [11]

Other restrictions concern the use of French in academic conferences. These are largely ignored by many public institutions, especially in the "hard" scientific fields. [12] [13] The original restrictions on colloquia also applied to private bodies, but that was found unconstitutional prior to enactment, [14] on grounds that they violated freedom of speech, and the final form of the law was modified accordingly.

Enforcement against French subsidiaries of US-based organizations

In the mid-1990s, soon after the Toubon Law came into force, two French lobbying groups—the Association pour la Défense de la Langue Française and the L'Avenir de la Langue Française—filed a complaint against Georgia Tech Lorraine, the Metz campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology. At the time of the complaint, all classes at this Lorraine school were conducted in English, and all course descriptions on its French Internet web site were in English only. The complaint invoked the Toubon Law to demand that the school's web site must be in French because the web site was effectively a commercial advertisement for the school's courses. [15] Although the case was dismissed by the court on a minor legal technicality, [16] and the lobbying groups chose to drop the matter, the school was moved to offer its French website in the French language in addition to English, although classes continued to be in English only. [17]

In 2006, the French subsidiary of the US company General Electric Medical Systems was fined €500,000 plus an ongoing fine of €20,000 per day for not complying with the Toubon law. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breton language</span> Celtic language spoken in France

Breton is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language group spoken in Brittany, part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely in use on the European mainland, albeit as a member of the insular branch instead of the continental grouping.

<span title="French-language text"><span lang="fr" style="font-style: normal;">Office québécois de la langue française</span></span> French language regulator in Quebec

The Office québécois de la langue française is a Quebec public provincial organization established on 24 March 1961, by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage. Attached to the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications(Ministry of Culture and Communications), its initial mission, defined in its report of 1 April 1964, was "to align on international French, promote good Canadianisms and fight Anglicisms ... work on the normalization of the language in Quebec and support State intervention to carry out a global language policy that would consider notably the importance of socio-economic motivations in making French the priority language in Quebec".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacques Toubon</span> French politician and official

Jacques Toubon is a right-wing French politician who held several major national and Parisian offices. He has been serving as Defender of Rights (Ombudsman) between 2014 and 2020.

The Charter of the French Language, also known in English as Bill 101 or Law 101, is a law in the province of Quebec in Canada defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the official language of the provincial government. It is the central legislative piece in Quebec's language policy, and one of the three statutory documents Quebec society bases its cohesion upon, along with the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and the Civil Code of Quebec. The Charter also protects the Indigenous languages of Quebec.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of France</span> Overview of the languages spoken in France

Of the languages of France, French is the sole official language according to the second article of the French Constitution. French, a Gallo-Romance language, is spoken by nearly the entire population of France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gallo language</span> Regional language of France

Gallo is a regional language of eastern Brittany. It is one of the langues d'oïl, a Romance sub-family that includes French. Today it is spoken only by a minority of the population, as the standard form of French now predominates in this area.

The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts is an extensive piece of reform legislation signed into law by Francis I of France on August 10, 1539, in the city of Villers-Cotterêts and the oldest French legislation still used partly by French courts.

Francization or Francisation, also known as Frenchification, is the expansion of French language use—either through willful adoption or coercion—by more and more social groups who had not before used the language as a common means of expression in daily life. As a linguistic concept, known usually as gallicization, it is the practice of modifying foreign words, names, and phrases to make them easier to spell, pronounce, or understand in French.

The legal dispute over Quebec's language policy began soon after the enactment of Bill 101, establishing the Charter of the French Language, by the Parliament of Quebec in 1977.

<i>Official Language Act</i> (Quebec) Act of Parliament of Quebec

The Official Language Act of 1974, also known as Bill 22, was an act of the National Assembly of Quebec, commissioned by Premier Robert Bourassa, which made French the sole official language of Quebec, Canada. Provincial desire for the Official Language Act came after the repeal of Bill 63. It was ultimately supplanted by the Charter of the French Language in 1977, which imposed French as the only language for advertising and education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Language policy in France</span> French as the sole official language

France has one official language, the French language. The French government does not regulate the choice of language in publications by individuals, but the use of French is required by law in commercial and workplace communications. In addition to mandating the use of French in the territory of the Republic, the French government tries to promote French in the European Union and globally through institutions such as La Francophonie. The perceived threat from Anglicisation has prompted efforts to safeguard the position of the French language in France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ministry of Culture (France)</span> French government ministry

The Ministry of Culture is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the monuments historiques. Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and protection of the arts on national soil and abroad. Its budget is mainly dedicated to the management of the Archives Nationales and the regional Maisons de la culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgia Tech Europe</span>

Georgia Tech Europe (GTE) is a campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Metz, France and is part of Georgia Tech's International Plan. GTE offers undergraduate and graduate programs in electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, and liberal arts.

Bill 63, formally the Loi pour promouvoir la langue française au Québec, was a language law passed in 1969 in Quebec, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multilingualism in Luxembourg</span>

Multilingualism is a part of everyday life for the population of Luxembourg. Legally and socially, different sectors of Luxembourg use French, German, and Luxembourgish, which is a variety of Moselle Franconian, partially mutually intelligible with the neighbouring High German but with a large number of loanwords from French. Additionally, most citizens learn English and may study other languages as well. A substantial immigrant population has brought numerous immigrant languages to the small state, notably Portuguese, which is spoken by more than one-fifth of the population. However, the different languages are used in different social situations.

In Occitan, vergonha refers to the effects of various language discriminatory policies of the government of France on its minorities whose native language was deemed a patois, where a Romance language spoken in the country other than Standard French, such as Occitan or the langues d'oïl, as well as other non-Romance languages such as Alsatian and Basque, were suppressed. Vergonha is imagined as a process of "being made to reject and feel ashamed of one's mother tongue through official exclusion, humiliation at school and rejection from the media", as organized and sanctioned by French political leaders from Henri Grégoire onward.

The Second Congress on the French Language in Canada was held at Université Laval in Quebec City from June 27 to July 1, 1937. The 8,000 congress members concluded the event with the formulation of 46 vows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Politics of France</span> Political system of France

The politics of France take place with the framework of a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic". The constitution provides for a separation of powers and proclaims France's "attachment to the Rights of Man and the principles of National Sovereignty as defined by the Declaration of 1789".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geographical distribution of French speakers</span>

The French language became an international language, the second international language alongside Latin, in the Middle Ages, "from the fourteenth century onwards". It was not by virtue of the power of the Kingdom of France : '"... until the end of the fifteenth century, the French of the chancellery spread as a political and literary language because the French court was the model of chivalric culture". Consequently, it was less as a centralising monarch than as a "gentle courtly prince" that the king unwittingly spread his language" and "the methods of expansion were not political"'. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the language of European diplomacy and international relations.

The Act to amend the Charter of the French Language is a Quebec amending act introduced by the Landry government in 2002, which made adjustments to several provisions of Quebec's language policy. Its main objective was to rectify the Charter of the French Language in response to the recommendations of the Estates-General on the Situation and Future of the French Language in Quebec.

References

  1. ↑ See the text of the Toubon Law in English at La Délégation Générale à la Langue Française.
  2. 1 2 See Television Regulation in France a 2005 report sponsored by the Open Society Institute.
  3. ↑ Chua, Amy (18 January 2022). "How the English Language Conquered the World". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  4. ↑ E., Ager, D. (1999). Identity, insecurity and image : France and language. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. p. 44. ISBN   1853594431. OCLC   44961967.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. 1 2 "American Bar Association Report on GE Medical Systems case: French court fines US company for not using French language in France". Archived from the original on 6 August 2009.
  6. ↑ Ruling from the Versailles Court of Appeal, 2 March 2006
  7. ↑ Code de la consommation R112-8
  8. ↑ Ruling C-366-98 of 12 September 2000, Court of Justice of the European Communities
  9. ↑ Marc Frangi, Le consommateur français entre loi Toubon et droit communautaire , Revue internationale de droit économique, De Boeck Université, t. XVII, 1 2003/1, pp. 135-144, ISBN   2-8041-4232-9, doi : 10.3917/ride.171.0135
  10. ↑ See Breton language for a summary of the Toubon Law's impact on the Breton language.
  11. ↑ Ruling 238653 of 29 November 2002 from the Council of State: 50/50 French/Breton education cannot be publicly funded.
  12. ↑ Question from senator Danielle Bidard-Reydet and answer by the Minister of Research Hubert Curien, 1991: the conclusion of a commission of the French Academy of Sciences is that enforcing the use of French in scientific conferences, through the use of simultaneous translations, would be not only costly but useless, and would damage the reputation of France among the international scientific community. The Ministry thus does not envision coercive measures, which would have the result of reducing the number of internal scientific conferences in France. Thus, the use of simultaneous translation is recommended (not imposed).
  13. ↑ 2008 Report from the General delegation to French language to Parliament, pp. 33-39. The National Centre for Scientific Research indicates that strict observance of the law would pose considerable problems. Page 39: 78% of research laboratories have organized or co-organized seminars, in France during the 2006-2007 school year. Out of that number, 62% organized sittings that took place essentially in a foreign language: 47% in humanities and social sciences, 71% in exact sciences. The operators indicated that sometimes sittings took place in a foreign language even though all participants were francophone. This situation took place within 35% of relevant laboratories (thus 16% of all laboratories), in approximately the same proportion in exact sciences and humanities and social sciences.
  14. ↑ Constitutional Council, 94-345 DC
  15. ↑ Giussani, Bruno (31 December 1996). "Georgia Tech Is Sued For Non-French Web Site". The New York Times . Retrieved 24 February 2008.
  16. ↑ "Victory in France". Findlaw . 9 June 1997. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  17. ↑ See Georgia Tech Lorraine website today.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.