| The ever increasing migration of persons across the borders of democratic nations raises interesting questions regarding the clash of cultures that may result. Cultural attributes of migrant communities, such as customs, beliefs, religion and language, are not always shared by existing residents and may in fact not be entirely compatible with those of the latter. A similar challenge also exists, as an inherent conflict in an extant situation, where there lacks an exact correspondence between a nation's territory and a single ethno-cultural group.;While democratic political regimes tend to protect the rights of minorities, little has been written about the rights of the majority. In fact, it can be stated with quasi-absolute certainty that the notion of "majority rights", as a positive legal concept, does not exist. Moreover, the literature on cultural rights is subject to the same inclination as the literature dealing with other human rights, namely, focusing on members of vulnerable groups. This has prevented the development of a more balanced approach to the legal adjudication of cultural conflicts that would show equal consideration for members of national majorities, even though the characteristic of "universality", which underscores every human right, demands that cultural rights benefit every member of society.;This paper attempts to propose a legal analytical framework to aid in the determination of whether existing international and European legal frameworks support the notion of majority rights in the area of culture. Our findings show that, while existing international and transnational legislation provide support for the right of nations to preserve their cultures, the same concern is not clearly transposed into domestic law. While there are some indications that the judiciary is starting to show signs that it is time for the views of majorities to be expressed in court, it is nonetheless premature to conclude that there exists a "right of the majority" that can be invoked to defend a dominant culture, and even more so to conclude that cultural majorities have a right of action to enforce such a right. |
