The Center for Law and Religion is delighted to announce that Professor Joseph Weiler (NYU) will visit us at St. John’s Law School next Monday, March 5, at 5:30 pm. His is the third session in our ongoing seminar, Colloquium in Law: Law and Religion. Professor Weiler will be presenting a paper dealing with the case of Lautsi v. Italy, which involved the display of the crucifix in Italian public schools and in which he was an advocate for several intervening European states. Academics in the New York area and beyond are welcome to attend. Please contact me if you wish to do so.
Lobeira on Neutrality in European Public Schools.
Pablo Cristóbal Jiménez Lobeira (Centre for European Studies (ANU); Centre for Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics (CSU)) has posted Public Schools and Crucifixes: What Kind of Neutrality? – Reflexions on the Principle of Secularism in a Plural Europe. The abstract follows.
Lautsi v Italy attracted widespread attention in Europe and beyond. At stake were different conceptions of neutrality of the modern secular state. Though the contention was about a Christian symbol, the European Court’s ruling has consequences for other religions and worldviews present in Europe today. This paper will review different ways in which neutrality can be understood according to the “immanent frame” (Taylor). It will analyze secularism as statecraft and as worldview (Casanova). It will explore the role of religion in the European public sphere in a “post-secular age” (Habermas). Furthermore, it will study the concept of tolerance as inclusion of plurality in the context of Europe’s constitutional traditions than as indifference about, or even hostility towards religion (Weiler). Finally, I will propose an understanding of neutrality in the public sphere that enables interculturalism among the European citizens, and arguably the success of the European Union as an analogical polity.