Religious Neutrality at Europe's Highest Courts: Shifting Strategies
Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, 2022, 1–24
Faculty of Laws University College London Law Research Paper No. 21/2022
25 Pages Posted: 28 Nov 2022
Date Written: November 9, 2022
Abstract
This article demonstrates that recent manifestations of religious neutrality in the caselaw of Europe’s highest courts amount to ‘shifting strategies’, which prompt systematic and excessive judicial restraint from European supranational courts. It argues that these shifting strategies end up (wrongly) framing the visibility of religion as the problem to be solved. It suggests an alternative approach, under which neutrality would only have a derivative and conditional value, to be established and assessed by European courts. The role of European courts would then no longer be to display (allegedly neutral) judicial restraint but to provide a democratic forum in which equality and liberty interests may be constantly confronted and revisited as new contestations emerge.
Keywords: Religious neutrality, impartiality, margin of appreciation, judicial restraint, Achbita, WABE and MH Müller Handel
JEL Classification: K00, K4, K31
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation