16 "RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT Belgium. The 1932 and 1963 Acts have not changed the earlier situation in this respect. THE LAW Beyond the six specific questions enumerated in the respective submissions of the Commission and the Belgian Government, the present case raises problems of a more general character concerning the meaning and scope of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and of Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention. The Court will pronounce upon these problems before ruling upon the above-mentioned questions, as the reply to be given to the latter depends to a certain degree on the solution of the former. I. THE MEANING AND SCOPE OF ARTICLE 2 OF THE PROTOCOL (P1-2) AND OF ARTICLES 8 AND 14 (art. 8, art. 14) OF THE CONVENTION A. Summary of the arguments presented by the Applicants before or through the Commission and of those presented before the Court by the Belgian Government and by the Commission 1. The wording of the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) reads, "No person shall be denied the right to education". Before the Commission, the Applicants maintained that Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) gives rise to "obligations to take action". In this connection, they invoked the spirit and letter of the Convention as well as the reservations and declarations made by several signatory States. They also based their arguments on Articles 17 and 23 of the Belgian Constitution, cited above, and also on Article 6 which guarantees the equality of all Belgians in the eyes of the law. They furthermore emphasised that education in Belgium is both compulsory up to the age of fourteen (Act of 19th May 1914) and free at the nursery, primary and secondary stages in official and subsidised schools (Act of 29th May 1959). Therefore, a modern State like Belgium cannot claim "that it is not obliged to take measures to ensure the free exercise, in this field, of rights which are embodied in, inter alia, its Constitution and the Convention". Admittedly, Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) does not oblige the Contracting States to provide or finance education; nor does it prevent them issuing regulations governing admission to the educational facilities which they provide or subsidise, for such regulations can be "justified by perfectly valid reasons". The Applicants however expressed the opinion that once a State undertakes