Coremans-De Vriendt law

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Juliaan De Vriendt, who proposed the law with Edward Coremans

The Coremans-De Vriendt Law, also dubbed the Law of Equality (Dutch: Gelijkheidswet), was a Belgian law passed on 18 April 1898 which enforced formal legal equality of the Dutch and French languages in the country. It is seen as a landmark in the history of the Flemish Movement and of linguistic equality in Belgium.[1]

The law was named after two Flemish deputies, and , who proposed the law. The law decreed equal validity for legal texts written in both French and Dutch, as well as decreeing bilingual signage in Flanders.[1] As a result, parliamentary debates could be held in both languages and henceforth all laws were voted, passed and published in legally equivalent French and Dutch versions.[2] The law followed a period of greater official acceptance of Dutch, starting in around 1886 when coins became bilingual.[3] The law's passing, along with the introduction of universal male suffrage (but with plural voting) in 1893, caused the Flemish Movement to enter a "third stage" of mass-membership - facilitated also by the major electoral reform of 1899.[4][2]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Hensley 2008, p. 15.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Hermans 1992, p. 15.
  3. ^ McRae 1986, p. 25.
  4. ^ McRae 1986, p. 26.

Bibliography[]

  • McRae, Kenneth D. (1986). Conflict and Compromise in Multilingual Societies: Belgium. The Politics of Cultural Diversity. Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 0889201730.
  • Hensley, David J. (2008). "The Blurred Boundaries of Belgianness: Walloon Intellectuals, Pride and the Development of Regionalist Rhetoric, 1884-1914" (PDF). Thesis. Pennsylvania State University: 15.
  • Hermans, Theo (1992). The Flemish Movement: A Documentary History, 1780-1990. London: Athlone Press. ISBN 0-485-11368-6.
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