Freedom of religion and secularism in the light of recent European Court of Human Rights case law

Abstract

Secularism and Religion in Europe is indeed the bases for a discussion which though perhaps has not occupied a central role for any length of time has most certainly been the subject of debate at least on the back burner quite constantly for the last couple of years. Secularism and Religion are indeed topics where the religious, the philosophical, the sociological and the legal meet and indeed it is this mixture of law based on philosophical thought that is first explored in Chapter 1 which seeks to establish some basic philosophical and legal ground for the subject matter. Chapter 2 on the other hand seeks to establish a certain trend within the European Court of Human Rights which court has evidently always given much importance to freedom of religion whilst allowing states that certain level of sovereignty to determine how best in their respective circumstances to enforce this fundamental freedom which the court places so much importance on protecting. Chapter 3 then investigates the Lautsi case; a case where the ECHR seemingly at first went a step further by attempting to streamline the meaning of secularism, something it had previously never attempted but which case ended in a reversal judgment through appeal. Chapter 4 then goes to show that such a debate is true even in Malta where perhaps some may think such debate is not even possible. Chapter 5 then steps away from the courtroom and onto hard reality proving how the different interpretations in different circumstances have led to decisions which have been the subject of much debate. Indeed Chapter 5 demonstrates how freedom of religion and an areligious society cannot be equated to mean one and the same.