Mutating Secularism and the Courts of Strasbourg and Luxembourg

Abstract

The article aims at mapping approaches to secularism in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and, to a lesser extent, the European Court of Justice. After an initial discussion of the challenge inherent in defining secularism, five approaches to secularism are identified. From those five approaches, the conclusion draws four key features of a circular process of changing secularism in Europe, with national developments prompting the two courts to react and adjust, and in turn rulings in Strasbourg and Luxembourg affecting the national picture. Hence a “mutating secularism”, the international circulation of which is significantly impacted upon by the two courts.