The Welsh Language Commissioner in Context

Diarmait Mac Golla Chríost

Description

This research monograph is the first authoritative work on the office of the Welsh Language Commissioner and the associated Welsh language regulatory and statutory regime. In setting the Commissioner in context – in Wales, the UK and internationally – the work draws upon a rich variety of source material arising from fieldwork conducted in a number of jurisdictions. The research data includes, for example, an extensive series of documents obtained under a number of Freedom of Information applications, in-depth interviews with key actors from pertinent legislatures, governments, regulatory offices, interest groups and civic society. The linguistic coverage of source material includes English and Welsh, as well as, where relevant, Irish, German, Catalan, Spanish, French and Basque, in a publication which is multi-disciplinary in approach, engaging with the scholarly and professional literature in language policy and planning, socio-legal studies and the politics of language.

Acknowledgements
1 Introduction: research aims and methodology
2 Independence, accountability and structure
3 Language rights and freedom
4 Regulatory standards
5 Promotion and complaint-handling
6 The Crown, Ministers of the Crown and Crown bodies
7 Official language
8 Conclusions: too complex a regime?

Sujets

• Political Ideologies
• Political Science
• Patriotism
• Nationalism

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 20 juillet 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783169061
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Welsh Language Commissioner in Context
THE WELSH LANGUAGE COMMISSIONER IN CONTEXT
ROLES, METHODS AND RELATIONSHIPS
Diarmait Mac Giolla Chríost
© Diarmait Mac Giolla Chríost, 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library CIP Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78316-904-7 eISBN 978-1-78316-906-1
The right of Diarmait Mac Giolla Chríost to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
CONTENTS
List of figures
List of key acronyms
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction: research aims and methodology
2 Independence, accountability and structure
3 Language rights and freedom
4 Regulatory standards
5 Promotion and complaint-handling
6 The Crown, Ministers of the Crown and Crown bodies
7 Official language
8 Conclusions: too complex a regime?
Notes
Bibliography
FIGURES
Figure 1 Location of language complaint-handling and enforcement functions: domestic (UK) and international case studies according to Welsh Policy Paper 3.
Figure 2 Timeline for the Welsh Language Commissioner, Standards and Regulations.
Figure 3 360° accountability of the independent regulator (adapted from House of Lords, Select Committee on the Constitution, 2004a: 20).
Figure 4 The necessary elements of better regulatory outcomes (adapted from OECD, 2013: 4, and OECD, 2014: 22).
Figure 5 Molecular structure of a Welsh language right following Hohfeld, 1919.
Figure 6 States in which the freedom to use or the ‘right to freely use one’s own language’ is recognised by statute.
Figure 7 Comparative schematic for Welsh Language Schemes and Welsh Language Standards as instruments for setting Welsh language regulatory standards.
Figure 8 Welsh Language Board: complaints and statutory investigations based upon data derived from the Welsh Language Board, Annual Reports, 1995–2011.
Figure 9 Irish Language Commissioner: complaints and investigations based upon data derived from the Irish Language Commissioner, Annual Reports, 2004–2012.
Figure 10 Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, Canada: complaints based upon data derived from OCOL, Annual Reports, 1971–2012.
Figure 11 E-mail from a member of the Welsh Language Society to members of the Welsh Language Society on 17 November 2014.
Figure 12 Examples of Civil Law jurisdictions.
Figure 13 Length of the Welsh language legislation in the context of UK Government primary legislation based upon data derived in part from House of Lords, 2013: 3–4.
Figure 14 Identifying excessively complex legislation (source: Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, 2013: 13).
Figure 15 From policy to Bill – a summary of upstream causes of excessively complex legislation (source: Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, 2013: 25).
Figure 16 Identifying the potential for complexity arising from the main content and purpose of the Measure.
Figure 17 Quantifying the potential for complexity in the current Welsh language regulatory regime: pertinent statute and instruments with statutory force.
Figure 18 Quantifying the potential for complexity in Welsh Language Schemes: volume and length of Schemes.
KEY ACRONYMS
AM
Assembly Member
BIOA
British and Irish Ombudsman Association
ECHR
European Court of Human Rights
FCA
Financial Conduct Authority
HL
House of Lords
HMRC
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
ICO
Information Commissioner’s Office
LCO
Legislative Competence Order
NMD
Non-Ministerial Department
NS&I
National Savings and Investments
OCOL
Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
OECD
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
PSOW
Public Services Ombudsman Wales
TAN
Technical Advice Note
WAG
Welsh Assembly Government
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work arises from the following research project ‘The office of language commissioner in Wales, Ireland and Canada’, sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), reference ES/J003093/1. The author would like to recognise two others as involved in aspects of the research relating to this book – Patrick Carlin and Colin H. Williams, both of the School of Welsh, Cardiff University. Carlin in particular was engaged with aspects of the research from which the book generally arises, and as well as commenting upon the draft texts of the book Carlin transcribed the fieldwork interviews. The author is most grateful to the following for their various contributions to various matters pertaining to the research underpinning this book: Linda Cardinal (Ottawa), Fernand de Varennes (Moncton), Rob Dunbar (Edinburgh), Daniel Elmiger (Geneva), Manon George (Cardiff), Dirk Gorter (Basque Country), Cosmo Graham (Leicester), Daniel Greenberg (UK Parliamentary Counsel and Berwin Leighton Paisner), Neil Harris (Cardiff), Meirion Prys Jones (NPLD), Gwion Lewis (Landmark Chambers), Huw Lewis (Aberystwyth), Wilson McLeod (Edinburgh), David Melding AM (National Assembly for Wales), Jacqueline Mowbray (Sydney), 1 Niamh Nic Shuibhne (Edinburgh), Martin Normand (Montréal), Colm Ó Cinneide (UCL), Seán Ó Conaill (Cork), Peadar Ó Flaharta (Dublin City), R. Gwynedd Parry (Swansea), Maite Puigdevall i Serralvo (Open University Catalonia), Vanessa Pupavac (Nottingham), Elin Royles (Aberystwyth), John Walsh (Galway) and staff at Cardiff Civil Justice Centre. The author is also grateful to the audiences of presentations given on the research results at Aberystwyth University in 2015, the National Eisteddfod 2015 (by invitation of Cwmni Iaith) and Calgary University’s annual conference (2015) on Language Policy and Planning , as well as at the international colloquium on Administrative Justice in Wales and Comparative Perspectives hosted by Bangor University, also during 2015. The author alone is responsible for the content. In addition, the author is very grateful to the OECD for permission to use the figure entitled ‘The necessary elements of better regulatory outcomes’, as published in The Governance of Regulators, OECD Best Practice Principles for Regulatory Policy (OECD Publishing, 2014; http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264209015-en ), in adapted form, in the shape of Figure 4 of this book. Figure 3 , entitled ‘360° accountability of the independent regulator’, adapted from House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution (2004a: 20); Figure 14 , entitled ‘Identifying excessively complex legislation’, from Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (2013: 13); and figure 15 , entitled ‘From policy to Bill – a summary of upstream causes of excessively complex legislation’, from Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (2013: 25), are reproduced under Open Government Licence. The author would also like to acknowledge the value of the comments and suggestions noted in the anonymous reviews of the draft version of this book.
1
INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH AIMS AND METHODOLOGY
This English-language research monograph is the first authoritative work on the office of the Welsh Language Commissioner and the associated Welsh language regulatory and statutory regime. The work that is at the heart of the book arises from a major research project entitled ‘The office of language commissioner in Wales, Ireland and Canada’. The project was sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). 1 The overarching aim of the research underpinning this book was to produce a scholarly output that will contribute to developing a better understanding of the characteristics of (i) a good regulatory environment, (ii) a high-performing regulator, and (iii) regulatory best practice, along with (iv) the means of realising effective regulatory outcomes in relation to offices of Language Commissioner in general and the office of the Welsh Language Commissioner in particular (henceforth, the Commissioner). This, in turn, will inform how the legitimacy of the regulator may be reinforced, so as to secure the effective implementation of public policy while at the same time reinforcing the confidence and trust of both the bodies subject to regulation and also of citizens. 2
In setting the Commissioner in context, that is in Wales, the UK and internationally, the work draws upon a rich variety of source material arising from fieldwork conducted in a number of jurisdictions. The methodological approach that underpins the research inherent to this book comprises, in the first place, an authoritative review of the relevant research literature in the fields of language planning and policy, public administration, language law and linguistic rights, regulators and regulatory regimes, and political science. The work is therefore multidisciplinary in approach, engaging with the scholarly and professional literature in language policy and planning, socio-legal studies and the politics of language.
The research data underpinning this text includes a rich vein of material arising from fieldwork conducted in Canada, Ireland and Wales. This comprised a set of fieldnotes taken at a range of public events pertinent to the research questions, along with a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with dozens of key actors from the relevant legislatures, governments, regulatory offices, interest groups and civic society representatives in the various jurisdictions. This body of interviewees included ombudsmen, commissioners, regulators, politicians, civil servants, policy advisors, activists and academic experts. The in