INTRODUCTION

After almost two years of pause due to a reformulation of the Mercator project, we are pleased to announce the return of the Mercator Bulletin and the publication of its number 69. The Bulletin was first issued in 1992 and was published quarterly until 2006. Its aim is, as it was, to make available the latest novelties in the field of law and linguistic legislation to all people interested.

In this new stage the Bulletin will continue with its usual structure: (1) Legislation, that brings the legislative novelties incorporated into the various legal systems of the states of Europe, paying special attention to the states of the European Union; (2) International Framework, that brings declarations, resolutions and other instruments, binding or not, made by international bodies or as part of treaties or international agreements among states, giving priority attention to those affecting languages and language diversity in the European Continent; (3) Bibliography, that brings editorial novelties from all over the world dealing with linguistic rights, language policy, educative models on language teaching, sociolinguistic dynamics and language diversity in general, again with a focus on Europe. This section also gathers information on the last numbers of some specialized journals in language and law applied to languages, as well as links to articles available in the net and websites of interest on the topics of Mercator.

As it is the first number after the pause, we selected some of the novelties that we considered to be more relevant since the last Bulletin. So, in the Legislation section, we included excerpts of those articles of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo (2008) that refer to the languages of the new state, not yet fully recognised in the international arena. These articles are the starting point from which the new Kosovar linguistic policy could be build.

There are also excerpts of articles of the Constitution of the French Republic that refer to languages, after the constitutional reforms of July 2008. For the first time the Constitution of France recognises that there are languages in its territory other than French, and that those languages contribute to the heritage of France. Even if the reforms do not make these languages official, it is still a step forward.

Regarding the Spanish State, we included excerpts of the Statute of Autonomy of Castilla y León, after its reform on November 2007. The Statute now recognises the Leonese language (Asturleonese) and the Galician language as part of the linguistic heritage of the Community - even if it does not make them official. The Statute also mentions the promotion of the Spanish Sign Language of the Deaf people as a social right of people with this kind of sensory disability.

In International Framework, we highlight the importance of the European Union Council Resolution of 21 November 2008 on a European Strategy for Multilingualism as another step towards the promotion of linguistic diversity, including the full text of the Resolution. A further step in the recognition of languages in Europe is the Ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by Poland on February 2009, also included.

Last but not least, in the section Bibliography together with references to the newest books we added some publications of 2008. Indexes of some specialized journals and three proposals of new Internet links are also included.