[non-official translation]

Act on the Status of Languages, February 24, 1984[1]

I, JEAN, by God’s grace, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Nassau;
Our State Council;
By means of the Chamber of Deputies’ assent;
Considering the Chamber of Deputies’ Decision of January 25, 1984, and the Great State Council’s of February 7, 1984, on not taking place a second vote;

Article 1
National language
The Luxembourgers’ national language is Luxembourgish.

Article 2
Language of legislation
All legislative proceedings and its execution regulations shall be worded in French. When a legislative proceeding or a regulation is accompanied by a translation, solely the text in French shall be attesting.
All regulations which are not included in the previous paragraph shall be enacted by a State body, by the communes or by public institutions in any language but in French, and solely the text written in the language used by this body shall be attesting.
The present article does not derogate those provisions applicable with regard to international conventions.

Article 3
Administrative and judicial languages
With regard to administrative, either contentious or non-contentious, and to judicial matters, either French, German, or Luxembourgish may be used, without prejudice to special provisions concerning certain matters.

Article 4
Administrative requests
Whenever a request is written in Luxembourgish, in French, or in German, the Administration shall respond making use, as far as possible, of the language chosen by the petitionary.

Article 5
Abrogation
All provisions incompatible with the present Act shall be abrogated, especially the following:

- Grand-Duchy’s royal order of June 4, 1830, containing the modifications to the existing provisions regarding the different languages used within the kingdom;
- Dispatch of April 24, 1832, to the Government commission, regarding the use of the German language in relations with the Diet;
- Grand-Duchy’s royal order of February 22, 1834, concerning the use of the German and French languages in public acts.

I request and order that the present Act be introduced in the Mémorial (record) so that it is executed and observed by whomever it may concern.
Château de Berg, February 24, 1984.

Jean

The President of the Government,
Pierre Werner

The Minister of Justice
Colette Flesh

The Minister of Official Duties
René Konen

__________________
[1] 1. Use of languages –administrations- obligation to answer in the language chosen by the user of the administration –jurisdictions- freedom to choose- change of language when going from an administrative procedure into a judicial proceeding – legality. The obligation to answer in the language chosen by the user of the administration is only aimed at the administrations and not at the jurisdictional authorities, before which solely the principle of freedom to choose language shall be applied. No inadmissibility shall be drawn from a change of the language used when going from an administrative procedure into a judicial proceeding by a user of the administration or his/her representative in a lawsuit (TA 4-2-98 –9650, Lindner AG-. Pas Admin. 2/1999 p.194). 2. Use of languages – judicial matters – Obligation to answer in the language chosen by the plaintiff – provision inapplicable in judicial matters – faculty of the court to answer in French even when the legal claim is written in German. The obligation to answer in the language chosen by the applicant is only aimed at the administrations and not at the jurisdictional authorities, before which solely the principle of freedom to choose language shall be applied. The court is free to use French, which is the language traditionally used in the wording of legal proceedings, and especially of sentences. (TA 28-10-98 -9569, Bertrand, frappé d’appel: 11107C -. Pas admin. 2/1999, p.194)