Brexit, Language Policy and Linguistic Diversity

Diarmait Mac Giolla Chríost is Professor in the School of Welsh, Cardiff University, UK. His research has informed the development of law and public policy in several jurisdictions. In 2016 he was visiting scholar at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford.Matteo Bonotti is Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Monash University, Australia, having previously taught at Cardiff University, Queen’s University Belfast, and the University of Edinburgh. His work has appeared in such journals as the American Political Science Review, the European Journal of Political Theory, Philosophy & Social Criticism, the Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy and the Journal of  Social Philosophy. His monograph Partisanship and Political Liberalism in Diverse Societies was published in 2017.

“Among the many important implications of Brexit, its impacts on the language policy of the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) have hardly been discussed. Mac Giolla Chriost/Bonotti fill this gap with a compact book consisting of three well-structured chapters. … the authors deserve credit for introducing the implications of Brexit for language policy into the discussion and making an important contribution to it, both for the language policy in the UK and in the EU.”(Manfred Herbert, ZaöRV - Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, Vol. 81 (4), 2021)“The book complements the emerging literature on the role of English in European Union. The book is still timely after the January 2020 Brexit withdrawal agreement. It also serves as a reminder that even if Brexit appears nation centrist, it also has supranational impacts. … there is a lot of room for co-operation between political scientists, political economists and applied linguists.” (Taina Saarinen, Language Policy, Vol. 20, 2021)“Mac Giolla Chríost and Bonotti’s timely book on the possible effects on linguistic diversity of the UK’s departure from the EU is a valuable and succinct contribution to the language policy and planning literature. … Ultimately this book is a thought-provoking, timely and carefully argued analysis of the various ways in which Brexit is likely to impact on language policy in the UK and EU now that Britain has left the bloc.” (Stuart S. Dunmore, Language Problems and Language Planning, Vol. 44 (1), 2020)“This volume constitutes a welcome addition to the literature on the status of UK languages and autochthonous language rights, and offers a discussion of Brexit-induced future policy changes.” (Ursula Lanvers, JCMS Journal of Common Market Studies, February 18, 2020)

• 1 An Empirical Overview of the Constitutional, Legal and Public Policy Status of the Languages of the UK and the EU.- 2 Brexit and the Autochthonous Languages of the UK.- 3 Brexit and English as a Lingua Franca in the European Union.- Concluding Remarks.