REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA
LAW
ON
THE STATE LANGUAGE
I. GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1. This Law shall regulate the use of the state
language in public life of Lithuania, protection and control of
the state language, and the responsibility for violations of the
Law on the State Language.
The Law shall not regulate unofficial communication of the
population and the language of events of religious communities as
well as persons, belonging to ethnic communities.
Other laws of the Republic of Lithuania and legal acts
adopted by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania shall
guarantee the right of persons, belonging to ethnic communities,
to foster their language, culture and customs.
Article 2. The Lithuanian language is the state language of
the Republic of Lithuania.
II. INSTITUTIONS, ENTERPRISES AND ORGANIZATIONS
Article 3. Laws of the Republic of Lithuania and other legal
acts shall be adopted and promulgated in the state language.
Article 4. All institutions, offices, enterprises and
organizations which function in the Republic of Lithuania shall
conduct business and keep records, reports, financial and
technical documents in the state language.
Article 5. State and local government institutions, offices,
enterprises and organizations of the Republic of Lithuania shall
conduct correspondence with each other in the state language.
Article 6. Heads, employees and officers of state and local
government institutions, offices, services, as well as heads,
employees and officers of the police, law-enforcement services,
institutions of communications, transportation, health and social
security and other institutions providing services to the
population must know the state language according to the language
knowledge categories, established by the Government of the
Republic of Lithuania.
Article 7. Heads of state and local government institutions,
offices and organizations, as well as heads of communications,
transportation, health and social security, police and law-
enforcement services, trade and other institutions providing
services to the population must ensure that the population be
provided with services in the state language.
III. COURTS
Article 8. Legal proceedings in the Republic of Lithuania
shall be conducted in the state language.
Participants in the legal proceedings, who do not know the
state language, shall be provided with the services of an
interpreter free of charge.
IV. TRANSACTIONS
Article 9. All the transactions of legal and natural persons
of the Republic of Lithuania shall be conducted in the state
language. Translations into one or more languages may be attached
to them.
Transactions with natural and legal persons of foreign
states shall be conducted in the state language and another
language acceptable to both parties.
V. OFFICIAL EVENTS
Article 10. Official events (sessions, congresses, meetings,
sittings, conferences, etc.) organized by state and local
government institutions, state offices and enterprises shall be
conducted in the state language. In the events, when a speaker
uses another language, translation into the state language must
be provided.
Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not be applied to
international events organized in the Republic of Lithuania.
VI. EDUCATION AND CULTURE
Article 11. The State shall guarantee the residents of the
Republic of Lithuania the right to acquire general, vocational,
higher post-school and university education in the state
language.
The conditions for acquiring general education in the state
language shall be guaranteed within the entire territory of the
Republic of Lithuania.
Article 12. All secondary schools of general education must
teach the state language in the manner prescribed by the State.
Article 13. Audiovisual programmes, motion pictures publicly
shown in Lithuania must be translated into the state language or
shown with subtitles in Lithuanian.
Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not be applied to teaching and
special programmes and events, as well as events and programmes
held for a certain occasion or intended for ethnic communities,
and also to radio and television programmes or texts of musical
works of foreign states which are broadcasted in Lithuania.
VII. NAMES
Article 14. In the Republic of Lithuania official,
standardized genders of place-names shall be written in the state
language.
Article 15. Genders, which are prescribed by laws, of
personal names of the citizens of the Republic of Lithuania shall
be used in the Republic of Lithuania.
Personal names shall be changed and corrected in the manner
prescribed by laws.
Article 16. Names of all enterprises, offices and
organizations, functioning in the Republic of Lithuania shall be
formed adhering to the norms of the Lithuanian language and the
rules approved by the State Lithuanian Language Commission under
the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
VIII. SIGNS AND INFORMATION
Article 17. In the Republic of Lithuania public signs shall
be in the state language.
Seals, stamps, letterheads, plaques, signs in offices and
other places of enterprises, institutions and organizations of
the Republic of Lithuania, as well as names of goods and services
provided in Lithuania and their descriptions, must be in the
state language.
Article 18. Names of organizations of ethnic communities,
their informational signs may be rendered in other languages
along with the state language.
The format of signs in other languages cannot be larger than that
of signs in the state language.
IX. CORRECTNESS OF THE STATE LANGUAGE
Article 19. The State shall enhance the prestige of the
correct Lithuanian language, provide conditions for protecting
linguistic norms, personal names, place-names, dialects and
written language monuments, ensure the material basis for the
state language functioning, provide general assistance to the
Lithuanian language studies as a priority scientific branch and
to the scholarly institutions which study this language, as well
as to publishing of books on the Lithuanian language science and
practice.
Article 20. The State Lithuanian Language Commission shall
establish the trends and tasks of the state language protection
and approve linguistic norms.
Article 21. Requirements for the knowledge of the correct
state language shall be included into the qualification
evaluation regulations of civil servants, pedagogues, employees
of mass media and publishing and shall be applied taking into
consideration the qualification and the work status.
Article 22. Mass media of Lithuania (the press, television,
radio, etc.), all publishers of books and other publications must
observe the norms of the correct Lithuanian language.
Article 23. All public signs must be correct.
X. RESPONSIBILITY AND CONTROL
Article 24. Any actions against the state language status
which is established by the Constitution of the Republic of
Lithuania shall be prohibited.
Heads of institutions, offices, enterprises, services and
organizations shall be responsible for the direct execution of
the provisions of this Law.
Persons who violate this Law shall be liable in the
procedure established by laws.
Article 25. The enforcement of this Law shall be controlled
by the Language Inspection of the State Lithuanian Language
Commission under the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
Article 26. When this Law becomes effective, the following
documents shall be declared invalid:
the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the
Lithuanian SSR on the Use of the State Language of the Lithuanian
SSR, adopted 25 January 1989 (Þin., 1989, No.4-11); and
the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Lithuanian
SSR on the Measures to Ensure the Use of State Language of the
Lithuanian SSR, adopted on 20 February 1989 (Þin., 1989, No.7-
51).
Article 27. This Law shall be enforced pursuant to the Law
on the Enforcement of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the
State Language.
I promulgate this Law enacted by the Seimas of the Republic
of Lithuania.
Algirdas Brazauskas
President of the Republic
Vilnius
31 January 1995
No.I-779