Cornelis J.W. Baaij

Winner Dissertation Prize 2016

Dissertation
Legal Integration and Language Diversity. The case for source-oriented EU translation.

Supervisor: Professor M.W. Hesselink
Co-supervisor: Dr. A.E. Oderkerk
Nomination: University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Law

Report by the Selection Committee

The author of this dissertation takes a clear stand and argues – in defiance of prevailing opinions – that the EU should choose unreservedly for English as the only authentic language. Baaij arrives at this standpoint and supports it on the basis of insights from language philosophy, translation studies, comparative law, European public and private law, and his own qualitative and quantitative analysis, which he elegantly forges into a powerful and coherent argument. Accordingly, his book is innovative and pioneering. You may agree or disagree with the arguments presented, but you cannot ignore them. In brief: a fresh and contrary dissertation that can in that sense certainly be considered ‘Erasmian’.