Syllabus
Syllabus: Week 1: course introduction · European Court of Human Rights · Margin of appreciation · Balancing free expression and religion Week 2: Balance between freedom of expression and respect for religious beliefs · E.S. v. Austria (calling Muhammad a paedophile) · Sekmadienis Ltd. v. Lithuania (religious symbols in advertising) · Otto Preminger Institut v. Austria (offensive film) Week 3: Wearing religious symbols in public places · S.A.S. v. France (French face concealment ban) Week 4: Teachers wearing religious symbols in schools · Dahlab v. Switzerland (primary school teacher wearing headscarf) · Kurtulumus v. Turkey (university teacher wearing headscarf) · German Constitutional Court case BvR 471/10 (ban on state school teachers wearing headscarves) Week 5: discussion on covid restrictions and vaccination mandates - consider Vavricka v. Czech Republic Week 6: ungraded Moot Court activity on hypothetical case (prohibition of construction of minarets) Week 7: Rights of parents in schools, including exemptions · Lautsi v. Italy (crucifix in classrooms) · Osmanoglu and Kocabas v. Switzerland (exemption from mixed gender swimming lessons) Week 8:Additional cases concerning rights of parents and children · Folgero and Others v. Norway (exemption from religious instruction) · male circumcision case in Germany Week 9: graded Moot Court exercise Week 10: Religion at work, and requirements for citizenship · religion and the workplace (Eweida and Others v. UK, Ebrahimian v. France) · citizenship handshake case Course Goals: The objectives of this course are:
1) to deepen students’ understanding of how the free religion rights of Muslims are protected by the European Court of Human Rights;
2) to deepen the students’ understanding of the interpretation of freedom of expression and religion;
3) to provide a deep insight into current issues concerning the definition of human rights in Europe;
4) to provide students the tools to compare and assess various approaches to reasoning free religion cases;
5) to aid students in acquiring and exercising sophisticated legal English vocabulary and grammar. Means of communication: This course is taught in person. (In case distance learning is required due to government closure of universities, then Zoom will be used.)
Annotation
Annotation:
This course focuses on analysing and assessing decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in various cases involving the free religion and free expression rights of Muslims in Europe. These cases require judges to perform the often difficult task of determining where the border may lie in cases of free religion under the European Convention on Human Rights, which was drafted by the Council of Europe in 1950.
The topic of the free religion rights of Muslims has become particularly important in recent years, and most of the cases studied in this course are quite recent, including the 2014 decision in the case of the French veil prohibition (S.A.S. v. France). This course covers cases in a number of contexts, including the free religion rights of students in primary and secondary schools as well as the rights of believers in public.
In this course, students are encouraged to critically analyse the reasoning of the European Court of Human Rights in the cases studied, and there is a particular focus on the proportionality test, as well as the implications of its application. In addition, students are introduced to comparisons with cases decided by American high courts to gain better understanding of different reasoning used in different jurisdictions.
The objectives of this course are: 1) to deepen students’ understanding of how the free religion rights of Muslims are protected by the European Court of Human Rights; 2) to deepen the students’ understanding of the interpretation of freedom of expression and religion; 3) to provide a deep insight into current issues concerning the definition of human rights in Europe; 4) to provide students the tools to compare and assess various approaches to reasoning free religion cases; 5) to aid students in acquiring and exercising sophisticated legal English vocabulary and grammar.