Religious symbols, public schools and the state neutrality principle: the crucifix case

Abstract

In this paper the author briefly examines the case law of the spanish courts and the European Court of Human Rights on the subject of neutrality of state institutions, as the courts have been eventually confronted with the presence of a crucifix on the walls of a public school. Special consideration is given to the understanding of the neutrality principle as perceived in the two quite controversial decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in the Lautsi case, each of one apparently proposing a different meaning and scope for the neutrality principle in relation to the right of parents to ensure for their children an education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions, granted by article 2 of the Protocol 1 of the Convention. The author concludes that the outcome in the second decision on the Lautsi case comes from an incomplete view of the proper meaning that should be given to the neutrality principle in the light of the ECHR case law, and results in the recognition of a specific practice that otherwise should probably have been rejected.