The Role of EU Legal English in Shaping EU Legal Culture

There is no denying that a change in the languages and cultures of European law is taking place. Indeed, many scholars speak of a hybridization of legal languages in the EU under the influence of EU legislation (e.g. Koskinen, 2000 ; Mori, 2011) and the emergence of a new European legal culture due to the Europeanisation of law (Graziadei, 2015). Exploring the interfaces of law, language and culture in the EU, this paper places emphasis on the role of English as a lingua franca in the EU in conceptualizing a common EU legal culture. The alleged neutrality of English and the importance of neutral terminology in EU legal drafting are examined against the backdrop of autonomous concepts of multilingual EU law. Arguing that the relationship of EU and national legal culture should not be framed in terms of opposites, but rest on the ideas of integration and synthesis, the author draws an analogy between the concepts of EU legal culture – construed as “law in action” – and EU citizenship, underlining the important role of the Court of Justice of the EU in shaping EU law and developing autonomous concepts