Language Research

Yugoslavia has had to publish many laws at the Federal and Republic levels to deal with national minorities. Federal regulations are embodied in The Criminal Code, (Article 134) stipulating the incitement or fanning of national, racial or religious hatred, discord or intolerance shall be punishable by a term of imprisonment ranging from 1 to 10 years. Other pertinent documents include; the Law on the Association of Citizens into Associations; Social Organizations and Political Organizations; The Law on the Basics of the Public Information System; The Law on Criminal Procedure; The Law on Lawsuit Procedure; The Law on the Publication of Federal Laws; as well as other Laws and general enactments.

In the Republic of Serbia there is in addition the Law on Radio and Television, the Law on Elementary Schools, the Law on Secondary Schools, the Law on Post-Secondary Schools and on Universities.

Out of a total of 45 municipalities in the AP Vojvodina, 37 municipalities have regulated the official use of national minorities' languages and scripts by statute in their respective territories in such a manner that now one or more minority languages are officially used. In parallel with Serbian, the Hungarian language and script are officially used in 31 municipalities, Slovak in 12 municipalities, Romanian in 10 municipalities, Ruthenian in 6 municipalities, and there is 1 municipality where the Czech language is in official use. There are no more than 2,910 Czechs living in Yugoslavia, of whom 1,844 are residents of Vojvodina. In a large number of municipalities, several languages and scripts are used concurrently on an equal footing.

The Republic of Montenegro adds the Law on Public Information and the Law on Public Order and Peace.

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