Stefaan Van der Jeught

Areas of expertise

European Union Law – Constitutional Law of the European Union – Language Law

Biography

Stefaan Van der Jeught is specialized in European Union law, with particular expertise in multilingualism, language law and the institutional functioning of the European Union. He is an official at the Court of Justice of the European Union and also a guest professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), where he teaches in the Advanced Master’s Programme in International and European Law.

He publishes regularly, gives guest lectures and takes part in conferences on EU law, language law and institutional issues. He is the author of EU Language Law (second edition, 2025) and a member of the editorial board of the Comparative Law and Language Journal.

Teaching

Visiting Professor in the advanced Master’s-after-Master’s programme in International and European Law for the course module: Constitutional Law of the European Union.

Onderzoek

His research lies at the intersection of European Union law, language law and institutional law, with particular attention to the legal and constitutional significance of multilingualism within the European Union. A central question is how a multilingual legal order reconciles institutional efficiency, legal certainty, equal treatment and democratic legitimacy.

A first strand of his research concerns the institutional language regime of the European Union. He analyses the legal foundations and limits of language choices made by the EU institutions, particularly in the fields of personnel policy, recruitment procedures and internal communication. The case law of the Court of Justice on language requirements in the recruitment of EU staff constitutes an important object of study. This case law provides a particularly relevant perspective from which to examine the relationship between administrative functionality, on the one hand, and the principles of non-discrimination, proportionality and respect for the Union’s linguistic diversity, on the other.

A second strand focuses on language requirements in the context of free movement and professional mobility. He examines the extent to which knowledge of a national, regional or official language may legitimately be imposed as a condition for access to employment, education, regulated professions or public-sector positions. Particular attention is paid to the proportionality of such requirements and to their possible qualification as direct or indirect restrictions on free movement.

A third, more fundamental dimension of his research concerns the relationship between language, legal interpretation and institutional legitimacy. The equal authenticity of the different language versions of EU law raises specific questions of legal certainty and interpretative methodology. He studies how the Court of Justice deals with divergences between language versions and what this multilingual interpretative practice reveals about the nature and legitimacy of EU law.

These strands come together in a broader analysis of multilingualism as a structural feature of the European legal order, rather than merely a linguistic, translation, administrative or communicative challenge.

Selectie van publicaties

• EU Language Law, Groningen, Europa Law Publishing, 2015 (first edition); 2025 (second edition), 301p;

• The Multilingualism Paradox in EU Law - In our own Language Version we Trust?, International Journal of Language and Law, 14 (2025): 81–98: https://www.languageandlaw.eu/jll/article/view/212;

• Linguistic Obstacles for Migrating Professionals in the EU Internal Market: Time for a Legislative Overhaul, Comparative Law and Language Journal (CLL), online, 2/2023, https://teseo.unitn.it/cll/article/view/2749;

• Regulatory Linguistic Requirements for Product Labelling in the Internal Market of the European Union - How the Case of the Irish Dog demonstrates the Need for a more coherent EU Language Policy, Comparative Law and Language Journal (CLL), online, 2/2022, https://teseo.unitn.it/cll/article/view/2203;

• Linguistic Autonomy of EU Institutions, Bodies and Agencies, Zeitschrift für Europäische Rechtslinguistik (ZERL), online, 2/2021, https://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/35638.