Directions in Religious Pluralism in Europe: Mobilizations in the Shadow of European Court of Human Rights Religious Freedom Jurisprudence

Abstract

Over the last twenty years the European Court of Human Rights has evolved into a conspicuous, often contentious, force in the multilevel battles over the place of religion in the European public sphere. In light of scholarly debates questioning the direct effects of courts on the issues they address, this paper explores how the nature and extent of European juridical influence on religious pluralism are better understood through developments taking place 'in the shadow' of the Court. Specifically, what is the aftermath of the Court's religion jurisprudence in terms of its applications at the grassroots level? And how might legal and political elites operating at the national and international levels influence the Court's engagement with religion? These questions are important because ECtHR case law will shape, to a large extent, both local and national case law and -less conspicuously but no less importantly -grassroots developments in the promotion of or resistance to religious pluralism. The latter will, in turn, influence the future of the ECtHR caseload.The European public square has, in the last twenty years and increasingly so, been inundated with controversies and debates broadly conceived around the place of religion in the public sphere. In spite of (and, some would argue, because of) popular and scholarly expectations of religion's retreat in Europe, issues such as freedom of religious expression, freedom of speech versus protection against blasphemy, and the public display of religious symbols loom large in the workplace, in schools, in media coverage, etc. throughout Europe, at the local, national, and supranational level. The presence of Islam in Europe has acted as a catalyst in many debates on religion in Europe, but these debates have now grown to encompass much broader assumptions about the nature of religious communities, their relationship to state institutions, and the place of minority religious communities in society. In short, the debates have 1 This research is supported by a grant from the European Research Council. I would like to thank the research team in the Grassrootsmobilise programme for their insights contributed during discussions of an earlier version of this text.2 come to encompass the place, role and rights of the 'Christian majority' (however passively and vicariously Christian it may be in most of Europe) in relation to a plurality of minority religions that are present in Europe. It is against this backdrop of shifting attitudes towards religion-state relations and multitude of Christian, Muslim, secular, and otherwise non-religious voices, that the European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence on religion issues has emerged to add its own voice.

Legal provisions, courts, and the status of religious communities: a socio-legal analysis of inter-religious relations in Romania

“…As we have shown elsewhere (Popa and Andreescu under review), the Court and its jurisprudence have 'indirectly' played a role in recent counter/secularist mobilisations that have also influenced some of the inter-religious dynamics analysed here. In terms of the cases empirically documented in this analysis, the case of the defrocked Orthodox priest who invoked ECtHR case law in his defence was an illustrative example of the Court's 'indirect effects' (Fokas 2015;Koenig 2015). It can be reasonably expected that the Court will have a more 'direct' effect on the religious freedom dynamics that we have presented here, especially if the complaints that have already been submitted to the Court result in actual judgements.…”

The European Court of Human Rights at the grassroots level: who knows what about religion at the ECtHR and to what effects?

“…It also influenced greater attention amongst interviewees to the concept of the margin of appreciation (Fokas 2015a). Emphasis on the margin of appreciation is disproportionately high in the interviews with Greek social actors (viewed positively by majority religious respondents and negatively by conscience-based minority groups) -disproportionate both in relation to the other country cases and in relation to knowledge of other aspects of the Court and its case law.…”

Managing Pluralism: The European Case

“…It will examine the domestic impact of the ECtHR case law on religion. Specifically 'it explores the mobilization of local and national level actors in the wake of a number of high-profile ECtHR religious freedom cases in order to determine the nature and extent of European juridical influence on religious pluralism' (Fokas 2013b). 19 The question as such is crucial in so far as the judgements at Strasbourg will be formative in the shaping of national and local level law and that in turn will have a profound influence on the management of religious pluralism.…”