REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA
LAW
ON
THE STATE LANGUAGE
I. GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1. This Law shall regulate the use of the state
language in public life of Lithuania, protection and control of the state
language, and the responsibility for violations of the Law on the State
Language.
The Law shall not regulate unofficial communication of the
population and the language of events of religious communities as well as
persons, belonging to ethnic communities.
Other laws of the Republic of Lithuania and legal acts
adopted by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania shall guarantee the right of
persons, belonging to ethnic communities, to foster their language, culture and
customs.
Article 2. The Lithuanian language is the state language
of the Republic of Lithuania.
II. INSTITUTIONS, ENTERPRISES AND ORGANIZATIONS
Article 3. Laws of the Republic of Lithuania and other
legal acts shall be adopted and promulgated in the state language.
Article 4. All institutions, offices, enterprises and
organizations which function in the Republic of Lithuania shall conduct
business and keep records, reports, financial and technical documents in the
state language.
Article 5. State and local government institutions,
offices, enterprises and organizations of the Republic of Lithuania shall
conduct correspondence with each other in the state language.
Article 6. Heads, employees and officers of state and
local government institutions, offices, services, as well as heads, employees
and officers of the police, law-enforcement services, institutions of
communications, transportation, health and social security and other
institutions providing services to the population must know the state language
according to the language knowledge categories, established by the Government
of the Republic of Lithuania.
Article 7. Heads of state and local government
institutions, offices and organizations, as well as heads of communications,
transportation, health and social security, police and law-enforcement
services, trade and other institutions providing services to the population
must ensure that the population be provided with services in the state
language.
III. COURTS
Article 8. Legal proceedings in the Republic of Lithuania
shall be conducted in the state language.
Participants in the legal proceedings, who do not know the
state language, shall be provided with the services of an interpreter free of
charge.
IV. TRANSACTIONS
Article 9. All the transactions of legal and natural
persons of the Republic of Lithuania shall be conducted in the state
language. Translations into one or more
languages may be attached to them.
Transactions with natural and legal persons of foreign
states shall be conducted in the state language and another language acceptable
to both parties.
V. OFFICIAL EVENTS
Article 10. official events (sessions, congresses,
meetings, sittings, conferences, etc.) organized by state and local
government institutions, state offices and enterprises shall be conducted in
the state language. In the events, when
a speaker uses another language, translation into the state language must be
provided.
Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not be applied to international events organized in the Republic of Lithuania.
VI. EDUCATION AND CULTURE
Article 11. The
State shall guarantee the residents of the Republic of Lithuania the right to
acquire general, vocational, higher post-school and university education in the
state language.
The conditions for acquiring general education in the
state language shall be guaranteed within the entire territory of the Republic
of Lithuania.
Article 12. All secondary schools of general education must teach the state language in the manner prescribed by the State.
Article 13.
Audiovisual programs, motion pictures publicly shown in Lithuania must
be translated into the state language or shown with subtitles in Lithuanian.
Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not be applied to
teaching and special programs and events, as well as events and programs held
for a certain occasion or intended for ethnic communities, and also to radio
and television programs or texts of musical works of foreign states which are
broadcasted in Lithuania.
VII. NAMES
Article 14. In the
Republic of Lithuania official
standardized genders of place-names shall be written in the
state language.
Article 15.
Genders, which are prescribed by laws, of personal names of the citizens of the Republic of
Lithuania shall be used in the Republic of Lithuania.
Personal names shall be changed and corrected in the
manner prescribed by laws.
Article 16. Names
of all enterprises, offices and
organizations, functioning in the Republic of Lithuania
shall be formed adhering to the norms of the Lithuanian language and the rules
approved by the State Lithuanian Language Commission under the Seimas of the
Republic of Lithuania.
VIII. SIGNS AND
INFORMATION
Article 17. In the
Republic of Lithuania public signs shall be in the state language.
Seals, stamps, letterheads, plaques, signs in offices and
other places of enterprises, institutions and organizations of the Republic of
Lithuania, as well as names of goods and services provided in Lithuania and
their descriptions, must be in the state language.
Article 18. Names
of organizations of ethnic communities, their informational signs may be rendered
in other languages along with the state language.
The format of signs in other languages cannot be larger
than that of signs in the state language.
IX. CORRECTNESS OF THE STATE LANGUAGE
Article 19. The
State shall enhance the prestige of the correct Lithuanian language, provide
conditions for protecting linguistic norms, personal names, place-names,
dialects and written language monuments, ensure the material basis for the
state language functioning, provide general assistance to the Lithuanian language
studies as a priority scientific branch and to the scholarly institutions which
study this language, as well as to publishing of books on the Lithuanian
language science and practice.
Article 20. The
State Lithuanian Language Commission shall establish the trends and tasks of
the state language protection and approve linguistic norms.
Article 21.
Requirements for the knowledge of the correct state language shall be
included into the qualification evaluation regulations of civil servants,
pedagogues, employees of mass media and publishing and shall be applied taking
into
consideration the qualification and the work status.
Article 22. Mass
media of Lithuania (the press, television, radio, etc.), all publishers of
books and other publications must observe the norms of the correct Lithuanian
language.
Article 23. All
public signs must be correct.
X. RESPONSIBILITY AND CONTROL
Article 24. Any
actions against the state language status which is established by the
Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania shall be prohibited.
Heads of institutions, offices, enterprises, services and
organizations shall be responsible for the direct execution of the provisions
of this Law.
Persons who violate this Law shall be liable in the
procedure established by laws.
Article 25. The
enforcement of this Law shall be controlled by the Language Inspection of the
State Lithuanian Language Commission under the Seimas of the Republic of
Lithuania.
Article 26. When
this Law becomes effective, the following documents shall be declared invalid:
the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR on the
Use of the State Language of the Lithuanian SSR, adopted 25 January 1989 (in.,
1989, No.4-11); and the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Lithuanian
SSR on the Measures to Ensure the Use of State Language of the Lithuanian SSR,
adopted on 20 February 1989 (in., 1989, No.7-51).
Article 27. This
Law shall be enforced pursuant to the Law on the Enforcement of the Law of the
Republic of Lithuania on the State Language.
I promulgate this Law enacted by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
Algirdas Brazauskas
President of the Republic
Vilnius
31 January 1995
No.I-779