COBALT successfully represented the Government of the Republic of Estonia in a dispute before the Supreme Court

COBALT successfully represented the Government of the Republic in a widely covered and publicly debated dispute against the City of Tallinn, City of Narva and a father of a pupil from Narva, who demanded that upper secondary schools continue using Russian as a language of instruction. The government was represented by COBALT senior associate Triinu Hiob and the partner responsible was attorney-at-law Liina Linsi.

The cities of Tallinn and Narva applied for exceptions to adopting Estonian as the language of instruction in several schools and the continued use of Russian as the language of instructions. The cities appealed the orders of the Government of the Republic which refused to grant permission to continuing to teach in Russian.

In the opinion of the cities of Tallinn and Narva, the Government of the Republic violated the local governments’ right to self-governance, as the state interfered with the organisation of studies in municipal schools as a local matter. The city governments also claimed that adoption of Estonian as the language of instruction requires additional financial resources to conduct the reorganisations, which have not been allocated to them. The appellants also found that pursuant to the Constitution, the language of instruction in minority education institutions is to be selected by the respective institutions and that the orders of the Government of the Republic are contrary to the provisions of international law and legislation. The father of the pupil from Narva requested that Russian be retained as the language of instruction for his son, as the boy’s native language is Russian and the abolishment of teaching in Russian would violate his right to preserve his national identity.

The Government of the Republic considered the complaints unfounded and argued against these in full. Each application for an exception was carefully considered and there was no reason to forego the adoption of Estonian as the language of instruction in the referred schools. Estonian as the official language has a special status and priority in its use also in education. Due to this, the language of instruction in schools is a national issue. The opinion of the Government of the Republic was that the use of Estonian as the language of instruction does not jeopardise the preservation of the identity or the language of an ethnic minority, as it is still possible to continue learning in Russian for up to 40% of the mandatory volume of the curriculum. Furthermore, over the years, schools have been provided additional financial resources to prepare for the adoption of Estonian as the language of instruction.

In its decision of 28 April, the Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court explains that determining the language of instruction in municipal secondary schools is a national issue and the local government does not have the right to decide on the language of instruction in secondary schools or to demand that Russian be retained as the language of instruction in municipal secondary schools.

This court dispute was covered by several media outlets such as:

Postimees
ERR
Delfi
Õhtuleht