Search results

The method : legal pluralism and comparative constitutional law : complementary methodology in the protection of religious difference -- The concepts : religious diversity within multicultural classrooms: religious freedom, education and equality -- The standards : interpreting the legal interaction of religious freedom, education and non-discrimination in international law -- Plural public education in Israel : for equal or different learners? -- Avoiding religion? : the question of religious identity conflicts in South African public education -- From tradition to modernity and back : religious diversity in English schools as a test-case for multicultural societies -- Negotiating religious identity in public classrooms legal empowerment through religious diversity in schools.

Multiculturalism is continuously and relentlessly put to the test in the so- called West. The question as to whether religious or custom- based legal orders can or should be tolerated by liberal and democratic states is, however, by no means a new challenge. The present article uses as its starting point the case of religious legal pluralism in Greece, as exposed in recent European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case- law, in an attempt to explore the gaps and implications in the officially limited use of sharia in Western legal systems. More specifically, the discussion is linked to the findings of the ECtHR on the occasion of the recent Molla Sali v. Greece case to highlight and question how sharia has been evolving in the European legal landscape.

This article discusses the impact of EU conditionality on minority rights in Slovakia from a legal point of view. The study of the Slovak case demonstrates the visibility and degree of the EU's contribution to the stabilization of the rule of law, democracy and the creation of legislation on the protection of ethnic minorities in one of the most complex of transition states. At the same time, the article argues that despite the propagation of some ambitious laws in Slovakia, the EU's contribution has had a limited effect on shaping the attitude of Slovak society towards minority rights. Both the formulation of 'recommendations' and criticisms by the EU and the 'responses' emanating from Slovakia, in terms of norms and policy, are examined, leading the author to conclude that the role of the EU in monitoring Slovakia's performance in protecting minority rights has suffered both from an unclear strategy and structural deficiencies, which have subsequently become embedded in Slovakia's domestic legal profile on minority issues. (ECMI)

The complex legal situations arising from the coexistence of international law, state law, and social and religious norms in different parts of the world often include scenarios of conflict between them. These conflicting norms issued from different categories of 'laws' result in difficulties in describing, identifying and analysing human rights in plural environments.This volume studies how normative conflicts unfold when trapped in the aspirations of human rights and their local realizations. It reflects on how such tensions can be eased, while observing how and why they occur. The authors examine how obedience or resistance to the official law is generated through the interaction of a multiplicity of conflicting norms, interpretations and practices. Emphasis is placed on the actors involved in raising or decreasing the tension surrounding the conflict and the implications that the conflict carries, whether resolved or not, in conditions of asymmetric power movements. It is argued that legal responsiveness to state law depends on how people with different identities deal with it, narrate it and build expectations from it, bearing in mind that normative pluralism may also operate as an instrument towards the exclusion of certain communities from the public sphere. The chapters look particularly to expose the dialogue between parallel normative spheres in order for law to become more effective, while investigating the types of socio-legal variables that affect the functioning of law, leading to conflicts between rights, values and entire cultural frames.