scholarly journals Ideological conflicts in Slovenia over religious issues

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-93
Author(s):  
Sergej Flere
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Holy See ◽  
European Court

Since attaining independence, Latin pattern (Martin, 1978) disputes and conflicts have characterized the Slovenian political scene, particularly as to relations between the state and religious communities. Slovenia adopted a law on the issue only in 2006, availing itself of the law from the 1970s. The 2007 Religious Freedom Act contained many privileges for the dominant Roman Catholic Church, including those of a symbolic nature and those of an economic one. The Constitutional Court declared the Act unconstitutional and void, departing from the European Convention of Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Thus, it set other beliefs at the same level with religious ones, did away with many privileges and obstacles 81 in recognition and registration of new religious communities. However, this decision has legislatively been implemented only in a small portion, remaining to be fully implemented. However, the absence of substantive agreements with the Holy See and the absence of religious instruction in public schools indicate a predominance of liberalism on the public scene.

The principle of secularism of the state in the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Italy: all roads lead to Rome

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 56-73
Author(s):  
Igor Pibaev
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Political Equality

The main characteristics of the European approach to the understanding of state secularism in many respects is based on the interpretations of Article 9 of the 1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by the European Court of Human Rights are, on the one hand, private freedom of faith, civil and political equality of citizens regardless of their confession, and non-discrimination, and on the other, the autonomy of religious communities from the state and the non-interference of religious organizations in public governance. The article shows the special way these values were implemented in the Italian state from the moment of drafting and adoption of the Constitution in 1947 to the present time. We analyze the judgments of the Constitutional Court of Italy interpreting articles 2, 3, 7, 8, 17, 19 and 20 of the Constitution of Italy on freedom of faith and the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and other religious communities of Italy with state authorities of the Republic of Italy. The author underlines the characteristic features of Italian secularism, including the principle of “bi-lateralization” providing for the possibility of combining the principle of separation of church and state with the bilateral agreement between the state and religious communities. In the article we try to answer to the questions of how, after the revision of the Lateran Concordat in 1984, the position changed of the Catholic religion, which previously was the state religion, and what role the Constitutional Court of Italy played in this change. Finally, the author concludes that the judgments of the Constitutional Court of Italy de jure promoted centrality and impartiality of all confessions to a great extent, but de facto the problem of realization of the principle of equality still exists, with the Roman Catholic Church preserving its dominant position in political life.

scholarly journals THE EXERCISE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN GERMANY AND BELARUS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

2019 ◽  
pp. 88-101
Author(s):  
Oleg Schirinsky
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Human Rights Standards

Germany and Belarus are in a comparable position with regard to the religious landscape. Both countries have two large religious communities that decisively shape religious life. Relations between the state and the church also develop in a similar direction in both countries after the fall of the communist ideology and have the model of a cooperation relationship. Belarus as a young democracy, of course still needs time to get to European human rights standards, but Belarus can do well when it comes to ensuring freedom of religion. However, the article deals with the existing deficits in Belarusian administrative practice. Given that Belarus is still not a member of the Council of Europe and does not belong to the system of the European Convention on Human Rights, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights cannot be applied directly here. The legal practice of the mature German democratic state is therefore taken as a yardstick. According to the author of this article, the greatest need to catch up in Belarus compared to Germany is in the area of ensuring religious instruction in public schools and theology in higher education. In Belarus there is also a strict regulation for the establishment of new religious communities that do not belong to the four traditional denominations – Orthodox, Catholics, Jews and Muslims. In Germany, however, religious freedom applies indiscriminately to all religious communities. These and other differences are examined and compared in this article, which should contribute to a better understanding between Germany, the EU and the Council of Europe on the one hand and Belarus on the other. Although Belarus is not yet integrated into the pan-European institutional and legal area, the European perspective for the country does not have to be disregarded. Recently, intensive negotiations between Belarusian and European partners on the modalities of a possible accession of the Republic of Belarus to the Council of Europe have been conducted. Notably, Belarus has made two such applications for accession in recent years and considered the case law of the ECHR to be binding in some of the decisions of the Constitutional Court. The effective guarantee of religious freedom can bring Belarus even closer to Europe.

scholarly journals On the rule of law and the quality of the law: reflections of the constitutional-turned-international judge

2019 ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Egidijus Küris
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Legal Tradition ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Derechos Humanos ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Law

Western legal tradition gave the birth to the concept of the rule of law. Legal theory and constitutional justice significantly contributed to the crystallisation of its standards and to moving into the direction of the common concept of the rule of law. The European Court of Human Rights uses this concept as an interpretative tool, the extension of which is the quality of the law doctrine, which encompasses concrete requirements for the law under examination in this Court, such as prospectivity of law, its foreseeability, clarity etc. The author of the article, former judge of the Lithuanian Constitutional Court and currently the judge of the European Court of Human Rights, examines how the latter court has gradually intensified (not always consistently) its reliance on the rule of law as a general principle, inherent in all the Articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, to the extent that in some of its judgments it concentrates not anymore on the factual situation of an individual applicant, but, first and foremost, on the examination of the quality of the law. The trend is that, having found the quality of the applicable law to be insufficient, the Court considers that the mere existence of contested legislation amounts to an unjustifiable interference into a respective right and finds a violation of respective provisions of the Convention. This is an indication of the Court’s progressing self-approximation to constitutional courts, which are called to exercise abstract norm-control.La tradición occidental alumbró la noción del Estado de Derecho. La teoría del Derecho y la Justicia Constitucional han contribuido decisivamente a la cristalización de sus estándares, ayudando a conformar un acervo común en torno al mismo. El Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos emplea la noción de Estado de Derecho como una herramienta interpretativa, fundamentalmente centrada en la doctrina de la calidad de la ley, que implica requisitos concretos que exige el Tribunal tales como la claridad, la previsibilidad, y la certeza en la redacción y aplicación de la norma. El autor, en la actualidad Juez del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos y anterior Magistrado del Tribunal Constitucional de Lituania, examina cómo el primero ha intensificado gradualmente (no siempre de forma igual de consistente) su confianza en el Estado de Derecho como principio general, inherente a todos los preceptos que forman el Convenio Europeo de Derechos Humanos, hasta el punto de que en algunas de sus resoluciones se concentra no tanto en la situación de hecho del demandante individual sino, sobre todo y ante todo, en el examen de esa calidad de la ley. La tendencia del Tribunal es a considerar que, si observa que la ley no goza de calidad suficiente, la mera existencia de la legislación discutida supone una interferencia injustificable dentro del derecho en cuestión y declara la violación del precepto correspondiente del Convenio. Esto implica el acercamiento progresivo del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos a los Tribunales Constitucionales, quienes tienen encargado el control en abstracto de la norma legal.

scholarly journals Um programa religioso num contexto secular os professores de Educação Moral e Religiosa Católica no concelho do Porto

2021 ◽  
pp. 97-117
Author(s):  
Tiago Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Teaching ◽  
New Challenges

This article explores the programmatic representations of Catholic Moral and Religious Education(EMRC) teachers, regarding the disciplineprogram, in public schools in the municipality of Porto (Portugal). Through a diachronic approach to the socio-religious panorama and Catholic religious teaching in Portuguese public schools, it is possible to identify, nowadays, new challenges for the Roman Catholic Church andforits school educators. The interviews carried out showed that teachers tend to consider the study planas limited, unmotivating and with excessive religious contents, so they proposed a subjectof moral and religious education not confined to the Catholic universe.

scholarly journals Roma locuta, causa finita?

2019 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-268
Author(s):  
Frans-Jos Verdoodt
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
World War ◽  
Holy See ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Poor Treatment ◽  
First World ◽  
Broad Understanding

De Heilige Stoel, d.w.z. het hoogste bestuurslichaam van de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk, toonde tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog in ruime mate begrip voor de verzuchtingen van de Vlaamse beweging. In de ogen van ‘Rome’ waren die verzuchtingen terecht: op grond van hun miskenning in het verleden, verdienden de Vlamingen, na de afloop van de oorlog, een tegemoetkomende houding vanwege de burgerlijke en kerkelijke overheid. Dat de katholieke aartsbisschop Désiré Mercier (1851-1926) die tegemoetkoming radicaal bleef afwijzen, stuitte in Rome nauwelijks op begrip. En dat de kardinaal-aartsbisschop zich daarenboven steeds meer profileerde als het symbool van het verzet tegen de Duitse bezetter versterkte het ongenoegen bij sommige leden van de Romeinse Curie.De Heilige Stoel mocht dan wel oordelen dat de Vlaamse Kwestie na de oorlog moest worden beslecht, zolang die oorlog woedde, wenste men een pragmatisch standpunt in te nemen: de bezetting was beslist een kwaad, maar daarom diende men nog niet op te roepen tot een burgeroorlog.__________ Roma locuta, causa finita? The Holy See, that is to say, the highest administrative body of the Roman Catholic Church, demonstrated a broad understanding for the aspirations of the Flemish Movement during the First World War. In the eyes of ‘Rome’ these aspirations were just: on account of the poor treatment that they had received in the past, the Flemings deserved an accommodating attitude from the civil and ecclesiastical authorities after the end of the war. The fact that Catholic archbishop Désiré Mercier (1851-1926) remained radically opposed to this accommodation was met with bewilderment in Rome. What’s more, the fact that the Cardinal-Archbishop also began to present himself more and more as the symbol of resistance to the German occupier strengthened the displeasure among some members of the Roman Curia.The Holy See could certainly proclaim that the Flemish Question needed to be settled after the war; so long as the war raged they wanted to take a pragmatic point of view: the occupation was certainly wicked, but still, one did not have to call for a civil war on its account.

Religious Courts in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-72
Author(s):  
Michał Rynkowski
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Religious Courts

AbstractReligious courts have for centuries been part of the European legal landscape. Almost all churches and religious communities have their own judicial systems, often composed of courts or tribunals ordered hierarchically. The aim of this paper is to present cases from the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, in which a religious court was involved at the stage of domestic proceedings. The twelve cases in question originate from a number of European States, from Italy to Finland and from the UK to Turkey—and in one particular case, Israel. The applicants belonged to many denominations, predominantly Christian. The Court of Human Rights (and before that, the Commission of Human Rights) has been concerned, in the main, with religious courts in terms of compliance with the requirement for a fair hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal under Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The Court has come to various conclusions—for example, it accepted that courts of the Church of England comply with the requirement, it questioned whether the cathedral chapter of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Finland did so, and it indirectly criticized proceedings before the Roman Rota of the Catholic Church. The most recent judgment from September 2017, Nagy v. Hungary, and in particular many associated dissenting opinions, demonstrate that the matter is worthy of study, particularly in the contemporary context of religious freedom. Nevertheless, the cases are so different that it is difficult to discern a coherent line of jurisprudence, and the Court itself hardly ever refers to its own previous judgments in this field.

The Effects of the Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights According to the German Constitutional Court

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 513-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Tomuschat
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
European Court ◽  
German Constitutional Court ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Willingness To Cooperate

The Federal Republic of Germany counts among the earliest States parties to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It ratified the ECHR on 5 December 1952, three years ahead of Italy, and hence found itself among the original members of the treaty system when the ECHR entered into force on 3 September 1953. For the new democratic Government, it was a decision of principle to affirm its willingness to cooperate peacefully within the group of European States, submitting to an international review mechanism with regard to all of its activities. Therefore, very shortly afterwards, it accepted also the individual application under Article 25 ECHR, which at that time was not yet compulsory for all States parties. For many years under the Nazi dictatorship, Germany had brought death and destruction to its neighbours. Now, organized under a democratic and liberal constitution, the Basic Law (BL), it wanted to manifest its newfound identity as a civilized State abiding by the rule of law.

Effectiveness of EU law and protection of fundamental rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosaria Sicurella
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Critical View ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
European Court ◽  
Significant Step ◽  
Principle Of Legality

The decision of the Court of Justice in the M.A.S. and M.B. case marks a very significant step forward in the Taricco saga. It clearly shows the intention of the European Court to tone down the confrontation with the Italian Constitutional Court, while at the same time maintaining the most relevant achievement of the decision in the Taricco case, that is to say the fact to consider Article 325 TFEU as having direct effect. The author expresses quite a critical view on the solution adopted by the ECJ which finally results in a sort of “flexibilization” of the principle of legality at EU level in order to meet some of the claims by the Italian Constitutional Court. In the author's opinion, such a solution risks to undermine the overall coherence and soundness of the protection of fundamental rights at EU level, although it can appear at a first glance to boost the legality principle. A better solution could have been to develop a different reasoning relying on rights in the Charter other that the nullum crimen principle, and avoid to touch at the well-established scope of this principle as established in Article 49 Charter and also in Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Winning the Battle by Losing the War: The Lautsi Case and the Holy Alliance between American Conservative Evangelicals, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican to Reshape European Identity

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pasquale Annicchino
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
European Court ◽  
Grand Chamber ◽  
Pyrrhic Victory

The compulsory display of crucifixes in Italian public schools does not violate the European Convention on Human Rights. The victory before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in the Lautsi judgment of a variegated coalition of actors ranging from the strong alliance between the Vatican and the Italian Government to the Russia of the New Orthodoxy as well as to American Conservative Evangelicals, promises to change our understanding of church-state relationship in Europe and signals the emergence of a ‘new ecumenism’ in which the religious groups of different traditions work together toward common political goals. But was this judgment a real success for the Holy Alliance that successfully overturned the first Lautsi decision? I will argue that the March 2011 decision may result in a pyrrhic victory. The continuous reliance on State support to defend majority religious privileges may endanger, rather than benefit, religious vitality.

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