Belgium’s legal periodicals as vectors of translation policy : how Flemish legal journals contributed to the development of a Dutch legal language

Belgium’s national history has been characterized by linguistic issues. As soon as Belgium gained independence in 1830, French was promoted as the nation’s first and most important language, despite the fact that a large majority of its people spoke Flemish. Constitutionally, the choice of which language to use was free, but the legal world easily adopted French. Flemish was only able to loosen the yoke of French during the final quarter of the nineteenth century, after a few sensational court cases. Jurists played a primordial role in the use of Flemish as a full-fledged legal professional la... Mehr ...