The Official (Lithuanian) Language in the Public Life from the Point of View of a Lawyer

This research focuses on the protection and use of the state (Lithuanian) language in public life. It was prompted by the increasing number of signboards, advertisements, buildings, "obscured" in foreign languages, and by Lithuanian food products whose titles are not written in state language but in foreign languages. In this way, in our public lives, little by little, the state language is being pushed out. Though Article 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania mandatorily states that the official language is Lithuanian and, according to the case-law of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania, the official language must prevail in public life, the effective protection of the state language is weak. The aim and tasks of the article are: to present the provisions of the official constitutional doctrine on the use of the state language, to evaluate the legal regulation of the use of the state language in the public life and its means of protection, and to name the responsible institutions and make recommendations.