Silvio Ferrari

The New Wine and the Old Cask. Tolerance, Religion and the Law in Contemporary Europe

The author argues that a correct approach to the question of tolerance cannot ignore the increasing importance of the religious factor on the political, cultural and social scene of the last few years. The common European model of the relationship between the State and religious faiths that may be called the Law possesses some margins of elasticity. These margins of elasticity may be defined as tolerance. A mechanism of selection allows the law to welcome those new requests for liberty that do not undermine the fundamental features of the model.

Law and religion in a secular world: a european perspective

This article examines two interpretations of the process of secularisation that can be traced back through European legal and political thought, and a more recent trend that challenges both of them. It does this through the prism of the public sphere, because in todays Europe one of the most debated issues is the place and role of religion in this sphere, understood as the space where decisions concerning questions of general interest are discussed. The article concludes, first, that the paradigm through which relations between the secular and the religious have been interpreted is shifting and, second, that this change is going to have an impact on the notion of religious freedom and, consequently, on the recognised position of religions in the public sphere.1

Religious Rules and Legal Pluralism: An Introduction

This chapter analyzes the interplay between religious rules and State law from the angle of legal pluralism, discussing how State recognition of religious rules can affect the degree of legal diversity that is available to citizens. This issue is approached through an examination of religious law, that is rules that are considered to be different from secular rules, particularly in those legal traditions that have been more strongly influenced by the Christian religion. As the latter rules are frequently identified with State law, religious laws are regarded as a challenge to the State monopoly of law. First, the chapter defines what is meant by religious rules; second, it examines the tensions between religious and secular rules; and finally discusses the different strategies and tools implemented and used by States to govern these tensions.

Droits de l’homme, droits de Dieu : Une inévitable tension ?

The conflicts between rights of God and human rights are on the rise. On the one hand, there are some rights that are qualified as human rights in the most important international conventions and in many national constitutions. As such, they are to be respected always and everywhere. On the other hand, there are rights that are directly or indirectly attributed to the will of God. Their respect is regarded as a religious obligation to be upheld even when it implies the violation of human rights. These are the terms of the conflict and the fact that they sink their roots in non-negotiable beliefs – rights related to the very nature of man vs. rights dependent on the will of God–makes this conflict particularly serious and complex. This article discusses the structural and historical causes of this conflict and proposes a few strategies to reduce the tensions between these two sets of rights.

Applicable Religious Rules According to the Law of the State

This chapter analyzes the interplay between religious rules and State law from the angle of legal pluralism, discussing how State recognition of religious rules can affect the degree of legal diversity that is available to citizens. This issue is approached through an examination of religious law, that is rules that are considered to be different from secular rules, particularly in those legal traditions that have been more strongly influenced by the Christian religion. As the latter rules are frequently identified with State law, religious laws are regarded as a challenge to the State monopoly of law. First, the chapter defines what is meant by religious rules; second, it examines the tensions between religious and secular rules; and finally it discusses the different strategies and tools implemented and used by States to govern these tensions.

Who Is Afraid of Religious Freedom? The Right to Freedom of Religion and Belief and Its Critics

This article answers the claim that it is impossible to implement the right to religious freedom in a coherent, non-discriminatory way. It relies on the notions of “embedded evenhandedness” and “particular universalities” to build a two-pronged approach to freedom of religion. On the one hand, this approach accepts that history and culture provide the particular framework within which the right of freedom of religion is embedded. On the other, it recognizes that the claim of evenhandedness that is inbuilt in this right can overcome the limitations of a specific context and open it to new ways to understand and implement the right itself. This tension between the universal dimension of the right to freedom of religion and its particular implementations allows affirming the possibility of religious freedoms, whose different manifestations are better protected by collecting them under the umbrella of the same legal category than by apportioning them between different rights.