El català a l'Administració de justícia i el nou Estatut

Resum

The reform of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy has made it possible to incorporate at the highest level a range of precepts that might imply a change for the situation of Catalan in the justice system.Despite the years that have gone by since the recognition of the official character of Catalan, the use of Catalan in the justice system continues to be very limited, to the point where the official status of Catalan in this sector is often more theoretical than real. The article starts with an overview of the role Catalan plays in the justice system under the current regulations, without taking into account the possibilities opened up by the Statute of Autonomy. First of all, it sets forth who is in charge of regulating aspects of language within the Catalan justice system and actions deriving therefrom.The fact that this power has been basically delegated to the central government has totally conditioned the set of rules that have developed, and affected the actual use of Catalan in the legal environment, for the worse.Secondly, the article discusses the rights and duties that citizens have when they deal with the judiciary and when they participate in various types of legal proceedings (as users of the justice system, as witnesses, jury members, legal professionals, experts, etc.)And, closely connected to this aspect, the functions established by the law for judiciary personnel, to the extent thatjudiciary employees also have a series of language rights and obligations that have to mesh with those exercised by the citizens and professionals who engage in the process.The resulting set of rules for language use, along with the current set of regulations, gives clear preeminence to Spanish and marginalizes Catalan.In addition, it has been to hard to make the use of Catalan as an official language dovetail with the centalized structure of the judiciary.Third, the paper provides a breakdown of the differing language profiles of the various bodies or categories of civil servants working in this area.The heterogeneous nature of the profiles and the valuation of a knowledge of Catalan as just one more merit for a possible position have led to a level of language skills that has not been up to the standards needed to properly provide for the language rights of the citizenry. The second part of the article is devoted to analyzing the aspects in which the Statute of Autonomy represents an innovation over the system described above and seeing what innovations it introduces in each of the aforementioned aspects.The regulations set forth in the Statute of Autonomy constitute a solid stepping stone and represent a major desire for change on the road to the normalization of Catalan in the courtrooms and tribunals of Catalonia.This change is reflectedboth in the fact that citizens have been granted a substantial and clearly delineatedset of rights (the right to be attended to in Catalan, rights when dealing with central government bodies) and in the willingness to place both official languages in a state of parity. For this reason, despite the cuts it underwent while being drafted, the Statute of Autonomy especially affects the level of knowledge of judicial personnel as a way of safeguarding these rights. In this regard, it introduces clearly innovative mandates, such as making it mandatory for all personnel working in the judiciary to know Catalan, the need to demonstrate that one has sufficient knowledge of Catalan, etc. The need to attain language competence is thus reinforced.In addition, a higher level of powers has been delegated to the Generalitat, which can only redound to the benefit of the normalization of Catalan. In any case, the paper concludes, there is a need for proper deployment of the new language regime, so that this language regime, as is currently planned, will become a reality and not just a statement of intentions.A reform of the set of rules on language that is encapsulated in central government regulations will thus become necessary.Bringing about the reform of these central government regulations will imply the collaboration at various levels of those central government institutions that have responsibility over the judiciary and the justice system.The Generalitat (Autonomous Government of Catalonia) itself must also, however, exercise its powers in the language area in unequivocal fashion.