18 December 2025
Headscarves and the Wrong Balance
To date, the CJEU has decided 6 cases concerning women who wanted to wear a headscarf at work. All judgments suggest that considerations of neutrality can trump religious freedom. Although the CJEU made some general and abstract comments about the importance of freedom of religion, it did not really address what the bans, in practice, meant for the individual women involved, neither did engage with the possibility that these neutrality rules could constitute sex, race and/or intersectional discrimination. The CJEU thus provide little protection for the rights of headscarf wearing Muslim women. Continue reading >>
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28 May 2019
On Wearing the Kippa in Public – and in Public Service
The kippa, the Jewish skullcap, is again in the news after the admission of Felix Klein, Germany's Commissioner for Jewish Life and the Fight Against Anti-Semitism, that he cannot recommend that Jews wear a kippa everywhere in Germany. The statement has been harshly criticized as an official surrender to antisemitism. Such criticism is woefully misplaced. Klein certainly intended no surrender and was merely recognizing the existing reality. Continue reading >>21 March 2017
Protection with Hesitation: on the recent CJEU Decisions on Religious Headscarves at Work
The CJEU's Achbita and Bougnaoui decisions on workplace bans of Islamic headscarves are disappointing as they are not providing enough guidance to the national courts concerning the criteria that they need to take into consideration in their attempts to find a balance between the rights in conflict. The judgments do not provide any criteria for the admissibility of dress codes other than that they should be neutral and objectively justified. Even those terms though are not analysed by the court in a sufficient manner. Continue reading >>15 January 2017
Warum Vertrauen in die Neutralität der Justiz ein schützenswertes Verfassungsgut ist
Gibt es Allgemeininteressen mit Verfassungsrang, die es rechtfertigen, Richterinnen das Tragen eines Hidschab zu untersagen? Anders als Aqilah Sandhu glaubt, lautet die Antwort Ja. Wer nicht bereit ist, auf auffallende Symbole gruppenbezogener Identität zu verzichten, kann nicht ein Richteramt beanspruchen. Dies gilt auch, wenn Anwärter ernsthaft und glaubwürdig versichern, ihre Zugehörigkeiten bei konkreten Entscheidungen ausblenden zu können. Zu der verantwortungsvollen Richterrolle gehören nicht nur die fachliche Ausbildung und die Fähigkeit zur Selbstbeobachtung, sondern auch Verständnis für die Funktionsbedingungen, die für das System Justiz von zentraler Bedeutung sind. Continue reading >>06 October 2016