Els professors universitaris, la llibertat de càtedra i l'ús de les llengües pròpies

Resum

Placed against the background of double officiality of languages established by the Spanish Constitution and by the Statutes of Autonomy of those territories with languages other than Castillian, this paper presents the legal and linguistic situation in the context of higher education from the standpoint of faculty members when carrying out their teaching activities. The concept of autonomy in universities, regarded by the author as an institutional warrant, and the university statutes, that provide the self-rule that the former entails, take up the first part of the essay. Thus, and as far as language regimes are concerned, ample attention is given to the statutes of public universities located in Autonomous Communities with two legally enforced official languages, with especial dedication to the different measures adopted, and to the consideration of the languages that are not Castillian as autochthonous languages or as official languages. The second part of the article deals with university professors and their constitutional legal status. A study on the University Reform Act and its subsequent jurisdictional development shows that the basic legal status of faculty members is determined by the national legislation on civil service (with no reference made to language matters, a domain that can be enforced by the Autonomous Communities), albeit with the particular differences that stem from university autonomy. Lastly, the consequences of regulation of university statutes are analyzed in terms of language use, as well as the right to freedom of chair. The author concludes that freedom of chair is unrelated to the use of a given language by faculty members, even when language use is related to a right to choose a preferred language as acknowledged in the statutes.