Pluralistic language policy and multilingual legal texts in Eritrea

Eritrea does not have one official language and there is experience in using multiple languages in official government communications, education, media and the legal system. Since Eritrean independence in May 1991, Eritrean laws have been promulgated in a mix of Arabic, English and Tigrinya: some are issued in these three languages; some are issued in Arabic and Tigrinya or Tigrinya and English; and the rest are issued in English or Tigrinya only. Given the continuation of some pre-independence laws, laws written in Amharic and Italian are also applicable. There is also a plan to translate four basic laws (called Codes), circulated in 2015 in Arabic, Tigrinya and English, into the remaining seven Eritrean languages and making them operational. The Eritrean legal system which gives equal weight to laws prepared in, or translated into, multiple languages has created, and will continue to create, a difficult atmosphere of linguistic discrepancy with prejudicial consequences on rights and duties of people and on the expectation for consistency, predictability and uniformity of judgments. This article presents the experiences in Eritrean courts in relation to discrepancies in legal texts issued in different languages and suggests possible solutions. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.