Andrea Pin
The Court of Justice’s narrow understanding of religious freedom under EU law is playing with fire. In the name of anti-discrimination and neutrality, it risks undermining religious freedom in ways that are particularly detrimental to Muslim minorities. At the same time, the Court proceeds as if European constitutional systems were roughly homogeneous, disregarding the profound diversity of church–state relations. This double-blind spot makes the CJEU’s approach not only normatively troubling, but structurally ill-suited to the realities it seeks to address.
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Sotiris Mitralexis
On a constant basis, church-state relations are a prominent topic in the Greek news. Currently, the new leader of the main opposition party repeatedly emphasizes that he strives to advance “church-state separation.” As far as the desiderata for constitutional reform are concerned, relevant discussions usually centre on Article 3 para. 1 of the Greek Constitution (cited as “Article 3,” but usually referring particularly to Article 3 para. 1), which defines the Orthodox Church as “the prevailing religion in Greece”. Often, yet to a lesser extent, debates focus on Article 16 para. 2, which lists “the development of [...] religious consciousness” as one of the goals of school education. Still rarer, the debates cite Article 105 dealing with the monastic communities of Mount Athos. Surprisingly, Article 3 para. 3 of the Greek Constitution is barely ever brought up in the debates. Yet, precisely this paragraph could – rather uncontroversially – be labelled as utterly peculiar and, above that, obsolete.
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