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Lawin Persuades Supreme Court in Estonian Language of Instruction Dispute

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In a follow-up to the story initially reported by CEE Legal Matters on April 24, Lawin is reporting that it has successfully represented the Government of the Estonian Republic in a controversial and widely-covered dispute against the City of Tallinn, the City of Narva, and a father of a pupil from Narva, who demanded that upper secondary schools continue using Russian as a language of instruction. 

The cities of Tallinn and Narva had applied for exceptions to adopting Estonian as the language of instruction in several schools, seeking instead to continue using Russian as the language of instruction. The Government of Estonia refused to grant the requests. The cities appealed, claiming that the Government's decision violated their right to self-governance, and that the organization of studies in municipal schools was a local matter. The city governments also claimed that adoption of Estonian as the language of instruction requires additional financial resources, which had not been allocated to them. The appellants also argued that pursuant to the Estonian Constitution, the language of instruction in minority education institutions is to be selected by the respective institutions and that the orders of the Estonian were contrary to the provisions of international law and legislation. The father of the pupil from Narva requested that Russian be retained as the language of instruction for his son, as the boy’s native language is Russian and the abolishment of teaching in Russian would violate his right to preserve his national identity.

The Government of the Republic considered the complaints unfounded and argued against them in full, noting that each application for an exception had been carefully considered, but that there was no reason to forego the adoption of Estonian as the language of instruction in the referred schools. Estonian as the official language has a special status and priority in its use also in education -- making it its use as the language of instruction in schools a national issue. The opinion of the Government of the Republic was that the use of Estonian as the language of instruction does not jeopardize the preservation of the identity or the language of an ethnic minority, as it is still possible to continue learning in Russian for up to 40% of the mandatory volume of the curriculum. Furthermore, over the years, schools have been provided additional financial resources to prepare for the adoption of Estonian as the language of instruction.

In its decision of April 28, the Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court explains that determining the language of instruction in municipal secondary schools is a national issue and the local government does not have the right to decide on the language of instruction in secondary schools or to demand that Russian be retained as the language of instruction in municipal secondary schools.

The Estonian Government was represented by Lawin Senior Associate Triinu Hiob, working under the supervision and guidance of Partner Liina Linsi. As reported previously, the Cities of Talinn and Narva were represented by Lextal Partner Karl Kask and attorney Margus Reiland.

 

 

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