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Law on Churches and Religion in the European Legal Area – Through German Glasses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Hans Michael Heinig

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Approximately ten to fifteen years ago the “danger of Europeanization” of the German law on churches and religion was hotly debated. The churches in Germany feared that the influence of the European Union would dramatically change their legal framework. But also academic writers worried about the influence of the common market law or European antidiscrimination law on the legal situation of the churches in the member states – sometimes in rather shrill tone. One almost got the impression that Brussels replaced the Marxist Ideologiekritik (critique of ideology) as the main enemy of Christianity in Europe.

Type
Articles
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 8 , Issue 6 , 01 June 2007 , pp. 563 - 576
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

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17 The author has explored this concept in Heinig (supra, note 4), 405; Heinig (supra, note 5) 243; H. M. Heinig, Die Stellung der Kirchen und Religionsgemeinschaften in der europäischen Rechtsordnung, in Kirchen und Religionsgemeinschaften in der Europäischen Union, 125 (P.C. Müller-Graff/H. Schneider [eds.] 2003), with further references.Google Scholar

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25 For more detail on the term and the concept, see Heinig (supra, note 4), 414.Google Scholar

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27 Heinig (supra, note 4), 421; the effects of the principle of subsidiarity can also work directly against the interests of churches, as for example when the ECJ (properly) strikes down limitations on Sunday working hours in the directive on work times due to a violation of the principle of subsidiarity (ECJ, ECR 1996-I, 5755 [5805]; see also Heinig, , [supra, note 4], 487; Walter [supra, note 4], 23).Google Scholar

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31 For approaches with partly very divergent accents but a similar result, cf. Walter, (supra, note 4), 411; Heinig, (supra, note 4), 421; Mückl, (supra, note 4), 413; Triebel (supra, note 5), 255; A. Uhle, Staat – Kirche – Kultur 150 (2004); for a skeptical point of view as to the inclusion of the law on church and religion under “national identity,” see also Vachek (supra, note 6), 271. The term “identity” relates to collective entities, and article 6(2) TEU deliberately introduces it into the treaties as a legal term for pragmatic, political purposes. Political theory and cultural theory, of course, will diagnose an enormous potential for conflict in the tension between collective identity and (religious) pluralism in a democratic constitutional state. Inasmuch, sufficient consciousness of issues involving the downtrodden in Christian cultural history is often lacking; see e.g. Uhle, , supra; A. Uhle, Freiheitlicher Verfassungsstaat und kulturelle Identität, esp. 473 (2004); the same accusation can be made against J. H. H. Weiler, Ein christliches Europa (2004), whose focus on Roman Catholic official documents seems strongly alienating—as though Christianity had no internal pluralism that is even actually constitutive of modern Europe.Google Scholar

32 For an informative survey of the law on religion in each and every Member State of the EU, see G. Robbers ed., Staat und Kirche in der Europäischen Union, 2d ed. 2005. As informatively saturated as the volume is, it still lacks in terms of actual comparative law. But, for selected examples of comparative legal analysis, see Mückl, (supra, note 4) (Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany); Walter, (supra, note 4) (France, Germany, USA).Google Scholar

33 For detailed analyses of the issue, see Walter, (supra, note 4), 369, 419; Mückl, , (supra, note 4), 427; Grabenwarter, C., Die korporative Religionsfreiheit nach der Menschenrechtskonvention, in Festschrift W. Rüfner 147 (2003); Wall, H. de, Von der individuellen zur korporativen Religionsfreiheit, in Die EMRK im Privat-. Straf- und Öffentlichen Recht 237 (J. Renzikowski ed., 2004) with further references.Google Scholar

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45 See esp. Robbers, G., Staat und Religion, 59 Veröffentlichungen der Vereinigung der Deutschen Staatsrechtslehrer, 232, 259 (2000); for a critical viewpoint, see Morlok, M., Diskussionsbeitrag, ibd. 341; for an instructive discussion of the topic, see generally S. Magen, Staatskirchenrecht als symbolisches Recht, in Koexistenz und Konflikt von Religionen 30 (H. Lehmann ed, 2004).Google Scholar

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48 F. W. Graf, Die Wiederkehr der Götter (2004).Google Scholar