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- Title
Post-Secularism and the European Court of Human Rights: Or How God Never Really Went Away.
- Authors
Leigh, Ian; Ahdar, Rex
- Abstract
This article analyses the critical yet elusive notions of state neutrality, secularism and religious coercion under the European Convention in light of the European Court of Human Rights recent decision in Lautsi v Italy. We contend that the real concern in the Italian crucifix case was not the infringement of the school pupils' religious freedom nor the proselytising or coercive effect of the 'passive' religious symbols. Rather, opponents of the longstanding symbols were animated by desire for strict religious equality, a notion that is, correctly in our view, not guaranteed under the Convention. Lautsi has significantly cleared the conceptual undergrowth surrounding state neutrality and the varieties of secularism, reined in the elastic notion of religious coercion and eschewed attempts to squeeze the constitutional diversity of European religion-state frameworks into a strict American-style separationist mould. The Convention jurisprudence on freedom of religion has finally come of age.
- Subjects
EUROPEAN Union countries; POSTSECULARISM; NEUTRALITY; EUROPEAN Court of Human Rights; EUROPEAN Convention on Human Rights; LEGAL judgments; FREEDOM of religion; LEGAL status of students
- Publication
Modern Law Review, 2012, Vol 75, Issue 6, p1064
- ISSN
0026-7961
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1468-2230.2012.00933.x