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1 S. Ill. U. L.J. 151 (1976)
Freedom from Discrimination in Choice of Language and International Human Rights

handle is hein.journals/siulj1 and id is 165 raw text is: Freedom from Discrimination in Choice Of Language and International Human Rights* Myres S. McDougal** Harold D. Lasswell*** Lung-chu Chen**** I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND The conception of human dignity is fundamentally linked to the life of the mind which in turn is closely linked to language as a basic means of communication. Language is a rudiment of consciousness and close to the core of personality; deprivations in relation to language deeply affect identity. At this point we are concerned with the depriva- tions imposed upon an individual because he is a member of a group with a special language. Language is broadly understood to include all the means (signs and symbols), phonetic and phonemic, by which people communicate with each other.' So conceived, language is a * Copyright retained by Myres S. McDougal, Harold D. Lasswell, and Lung-chu Chen. This article is excerpted from a book, HUMAN RIorrs AND WORLD PUBLIC ORDER, the authors have in progress. The authors gratefully acknowledge the criticism and comments of Professors W. Michael Reisman, John Claydon, and Irving I. Zaretsky. The Ralph E. Ogden Foundation has been generous in its support of the studies from which this article is drawn. This article is one of a series designed to document the emergence of a general norm of nondiscrimination in the allocation of access to important value processes for reasons irrelevant to individual capabilities and potentialities. The first of these articles is McDougal, Lasswell, & Chen, The Protection of Respect and Human Rights: Freedom of Choice and World Public Order, 24 AM. U. L. REV. 919 (1975). For further illustration with regard to different grounds of discrimination, see McDougal, Lasswell, & Chen, Human Rights for Women and World Public Order: The Outlawing of Sex-Based Discrimination, 69 AM. J. INT'L L. 497 (1975); McDougal, Lasswell, & Chen, Non- Conforming Political Opinion and Human Rights: Transnational Protection against Discrimination, 2 YALE STUDIES IN WORLD PUBLIC ORDER 1 (1975). ** Sterling Professor of Law, Emeritus, Yale Law School. *** Ford Foundation Professor of Law and Social Sciences, Emeritus, Yale Law School. **** Senior Research Associate, Yale Law School. 1. Sapir, Language, 9 ENCYC. Soc. ScL 155 (E. Seligman ed. 1933). On the concept and functions of language, see generally ADvANcEs IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (J. Fishman ed. in two volumes 1971, 1972); L. BLOOMFIELD, A LEONARD BLOOMFIELD ANTHOLOGY (1970); L. BLOOMFIELD. LANGUAGE (1933); N. CHOMSKY,

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