The Welsh Courts Act 1942 is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

that allowed the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language family, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut P ...

to be used in courts in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

provided that the person speaking would be under a disadvantage in having to speak English. Section 1 of the Act repealed section 17 of the Laws of Wales Act 1536 and stipulated that

the Welsh language may be used in any court in Wales by any party or witness who considers that he would otherwise be at any disadvantage by reason of his natural language of communication being Welsh.

Section 2 of the Act allowed oaths and affirmations to be taken in Welsh with like effect as with English. Section 1 of the Act was repealed by the

Welsh Language Act 1967 The Welsh Language Act 1967, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which gave some rights to use the Welsh language in legal proceedings in Wales (including Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-e ...

, which extended the right to use Welsh in legal proceedings to any person who wished to do so, and the rest by the

Welsh Language Act 1993 The Welsh Language Act 1993, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which put the Welsh language on an equal footing with the English language in Wales. The Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 had made English the only language of publi ...

which made Welsh an official language of Wales.

References

{{Welsh language 1942 in law

1942 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in wh ...

Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning Wales United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1942 History of Monmouthshire Language policy in the United Kingdom