ABSTRACT
Minority language transmission is no longer based solely on family, associated networks and statutory education but is increasingly influenced by the so-called ‘legislative turn’. This paper focuses on some of the side-effects of this latter trend as they appear in two of the most advanced cases in that field (the Basque Country and Ireland). The aim is to identify the reach and significance of the appeal to law and to anticipate some of the more challenging aspects for official language policy in terms of professionalization, juridical relationship between the minority and the majority and between the individual citizen, the language community and the state.
