A comparative study of the religious freedom laws of Europe

Abstract

The consolidation of the European Union as a political entity and the articulation of a European Community Law raise certain relevant questions in different fields of law. This research focuses in a particular sphere: the freedom of conscience as object of Law and religion. The relevance of this issue is due to the existence of a double juridical regulation –not necessarily coincident– of the freedom of conscience: the European Union Member States regulations, which consider this subject as part of their respective identities; and the European Community Law regulation. As a result, the legislative harmonization of this subject faces important difficulties, especially as far as the collective dimension of the Right to freedom of conscience is concerned –the individual dimension does not raise major problems–. The referred difficulty is due to the enormous weight of the traditional and historic religions in the different States, which determine in many occasions their legislations. This has a detrimental effect on the secularity of the States, as well as on the rights of minority religious groups, which are the result, to a large extent, of the cultural pluralism arising from immigration. The analysis of these two juridical spaces –State laws and European Community Law– will allow us to assess the implications of a possible legislative harmonization in the future.