COBALT represented the Government of the Republic of Estonia in a dispute related to the use of Russian as the language of study in a municipal school

COBALT successfully represented the Government of the Republic of Estonia in a widely publicised and debated court dispute concerning the continued use of Russian as the language of study against the cities of Tallinn and Narva and a father of a pupil in Narva as plaintiffs.

In the plaintiffs’ opinion the Government of the Republic violated the autonomy of the local government as the state unlawfully interfered in the organisation of studies as a matter of local life. The plaintiffs also claimed that the disputed orders require additional allocations of money to carry out the changes but they have no such resources. Furthermore, the plaintiffs found that pursuant to the constitution, the language of study in educational institutions for national minorities is to be chosen by the educational institution and the orders of the Government of the Republic are in violation of international norms and legislations. The father of the pupil in Narva requested that Russian be kept as the language of study for his son, as the son’s mother tongue is Russian and stated that not doing so would violate his right to preservation of his culture and identity.

The Government of the Republic found the complaints unjustified and disputed them in full. Tallinn Administrative Court, which due to the fundamental nature of the matter adjudicated it as a panel of three judges, agreed with the Government of the Republic and found that the orders of the Government of the Republic are lawful and that there are no grounds to satisfy the complaints.