Perfect linguistic justice could be interpreted as every individual having the right to use their preferred language in every social situation. However, that ideal collides with the real world, where because of costs and other administrative reasons it is necessary to reduce linguistic rights from the ideal. In principle one could find out how highly each individual values having a certain right for their language, add up those valuations and compare the sum of the individual valuations with the cost for society of implementing the right. A right would then be accepted if its value exceeds its cost.

The costs are usually easy to calculate. The cost per person usually falls as the number of beneficiaries of the right grows. Because of this, an optimal rule for linguistic rights leads to a so called "critical number" of beneficiaries. The definition of value is much more difficult. As a starting point one could take the sum of the individual valuations and modify it. Such modifications are necessary, for example, if a right increases the status of a language and thus the willingness to pay, or if the right enlarges future generations of language users. These modifications increase the value compared to the individual valuation, and owing to this increase of the valuation one should have more rights.

If equality in itself has a social value then the disadvantages for members of a minority without rights for their language must be regarded as a social cost. This cost must be compared with the costs of implementing the rights. The more important equality is held to be, the more rights one should have. The legal implementation of language rights requires rules that are not too complex as the administration of complex rules implies greater costs. So one must find simple rules and categories.

The geographical structure of the state is also important, and it is possible to analyse different federal structures and find an optimal structure depending on the places where the users of various languages live. Members of the majority may try to discriminate against the minority through manipulation of the federal structure. It is worth finding rules for linguistic rights that minimise the discriminatory possibilities of structural manipulation.