Freedom of Religion, Minority Rights and the Law The Status of Jewish and Muslim Minorities in Europe and Beyond

 List of Contributors

Foreword
Adv. Meir Linzen (President of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists)

Prologue: The Boundaries of Religious Freedom in Democracies
Raphael Cohen-Almagor

Introduction: Religious Freedom and Religious Minorities in Contemporary Europe and Beyond
Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias and Aviad Hacohen

Part 1: Jewish and Muslim Minorities as Vulnerable Groups under International Human Rights Law

1. The ECtHR, the CJEU and the Protection of Religious Minorities: A Mixed Scorecard
Kristin Henrard

2. Strengthening the Protection of Religious Minorities by Establishing a New Universal Human Rights Treaty: A Necessary or Redundant Effort?
Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias

3. The Concept of Vulnerability in the Context of Religious Minorities
Grażyna Baranowska

Part 2: Duty of Religious Neutrality and Impartiality

4. Free Speech and Religious Sensitivity: Between Today’s State-Sponsored SLAPPing and Careful Balancing of Competing Interests
Marcin Górski

5. Employers’ Duties to Respect the Religious Freedom of Employees at the Workplace – Recent Developments
Ioanna Tourkochoriti

Part 3: Shechita and Traditional Circumcision Bans

6.Shechita Legal Bans in the Comparative Perspective (Historically and Today)
Iddo Porat

7. Animal Welfare and the Right to Freedom of Religion Before the CJEU: The Case of Stunning and Ritual Slaughter
Gerhard van der Schyff

8. Ritual Male Circumcision and Children’s Rights
Rhona Schuz

Part 4: The Constitutional Boundaries of Religious Accommodation of Jewish and Muslim Minorities: National Perspectives

9. The Constitutional Boundaries of Religious Accommodation: The Israeli Perspective
Aviad Hacohen

10. Jewish and Muslim Claims to Religious Freedom, Participation and Benefits under Article 4 (1) and (2) of the German Basic Law – and their Constitutional Limits
Hans Michael Heinig

11. Recent Developments in Belgian Case Law on the Regulation of Relations between the State and Religions
Stéphanie Wattier

12. Lethargy in the UK: How Not to Accommodate Religion or Belief
Russel Sandberg

13. Laïcité, the legal framework for the exercise of minority religions in France
Francois Finck

Epilogue: The Amicus Curiae Opinion of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists for the CJEU Shechita case
Joseph Weiler

Biography

Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias is Professor at the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland.

Aviad Hacohen is President of the Academic Center for Law and Science and former Dean of its Law School, former Lecturer on Constitutional Law and Jewish Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Senior Research Fellow, Van Leer Institute Jerusalem, Israel.

“The message of this highly interesting and well-edited collection is complexity and enigma, the gap between theory and practice concerning the freedom of religion. Many countries would declare their support for it, but when it comes to implementing, we many a time face nimby-not in my backyard. While legal institutions continue their more or less successful work, reality in many societies is grim. But having said that, sadly based on the gift of memory, we should never lose hope, in the spirit of prophet Malachi (2.10)-“Have we not all one father?””

—Justice Professor Elyakim Rubinstein, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, former Vice President of the Supreme Court of Israel and Attorney General of Israel.

“A timely and insightful collection examining two religious minorities in Europe, whose status is increasingly precarious - not only due to the growing secularization of European societies and the resulting indifference, insensitivity, or even hostility toward religious claims but also because of polarizing political events that cast them as adversaries or outsiders. This book sheds new light on the diverse interpretations of state secularism, the principle of neutrality, and the practical challenges of ensuring reasonable accommodation for Jews and Muslims in Europe. A meticulously curated edited volume featuring a stellar cast of contributors.”

—Professor Anna Śledzińska-Simon, University of Wrocław, member of the Cultural and Religious Diversity under State Law across Europe project at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle.