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Religious Tolerance, Pluralist Society and the Neutrality of the State: The Federal Constitutional Court's Decision in the Headscarf Case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Matthias Mahlmann

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Some of the most magnificent achievements of human culture, from the Parthenon to Paradise Lost, have been inspired by religion and some of the worst atrocities of human history have been committed to worship its commands. In consequence, whenever questions of religion become part of the political and legal agenda of a society one might be very insecure about the solution of the problem but can be absolutely confident that the stakes are high and the discussions intense. This general observation about religious issues has gained a special dimension due to the events of September 11, 2001, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since then the role of religions in general and of Islam in particular is at the very core of central debates of global civil society and of the deliberations and actions of policy makers.

Type
Public Law
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 4 , Issue 11 , 01 November 2003 , pp. 1099 - 1116
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 BVerfG, 2 BvR 1436/02, 24.9.03; available at: http://www.bverfg.de. There is another decision of the German Constitutional Court dealing with head scarves. The Federal Labour Court had ruled that it is impermissible to dismiss an employee in a department store because this employee wears a head scarf. The defendant had argued that he would incur financial losses because costumers were not accustomed to such a sight. The Federal Labour Court did not engage in a principled discussion of the role of fundamental rights like the freedom of religion in this case but argued simply that there was no evidence for the economic losses given. Compare BAG, 2 AZR 472/01, DB 2003, 830. The Federal Constitutional Court followed this argumentation, compare BVerfG, 1 BvR 792/03, 30.7.2003, available at: http://www.bverfg.de.Google Scholar

On the background of the head scarf issue and the divided opinion in German constitutional doctrine compare Stefan Huster, Die ethische Neutralität des Staates 143 – 144 (2002).Google Scholar

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8 More precisely from Art. 4.1, 3.3. Sentence 1, Art. 33.3 and 140 of the GG, the latter incorporating Art. 136.1, 136.4, Art. 137.1 of the Constitution of Weimar into German constitutional law.Google Scholar

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11 Id. at 255.Google Scholar

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13 VG Lüneburg NJW 2001, 767. Overruled by OVG Lüneburg, NVwZ-RR 2002, 658.Google Scholar

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65 These relations were traditionally termed following O. Mayer “Besonderes Gewaltverhältnis” and encompassed the prison regime, civil servants, soldiers or schools. The Federal Constitutional Court has strengthened the protection of fundamental rights by the demand of legislative acts in this field, too, as the fundamental rights are here applicable as everywhere else, compare e.g. BVerfGE 33, 1 (11) on the applicability in the prison regime. On the current view that the fundamental rights are in principle applicable, that they unfold their effect in the classical status negativus, too and that the civil servant does not lose them by entering the sphere of the state as proposed in older doctrinal constructions, Kunig, in Besonderes Verwaltungsrecht Rn 46-48, 168-174 (Schmidt-Aßmann ed., 12th ed. 2003). Lecheler, in Handbuch des Staatsrechts, Bd. III, § 72 Rn. 69 (Isensee/Kirchhof eds. 1996).Google Scholar

66 On the various questions raised by Art. 3.2 of the Basic Law compare concisely Britz, Das verfassungsrechtliche Dilemma doppeller Fremdheit: Islamische Bekleidungsvorschriften für Frauen und Grundgesetz, KJ 2003, 95. For Hufen, the protection of Muslim girls against pressure to wear a head scarf is a decisive reason for banning it for teachers. See, Hufen, Das Kopftuch-Urteil des BVerfG – Steine statt Brot oder mehr, 43 Neue Juristische Wochenschrift (2003).Google Scholar

67 BVerfGE 93, 1 (20) rightly pointed out that such an understanding would be a profanation of its meaning.Google Scholar

68 Mill, J. S. in On Liberty rightly defended with this argument the necessity of civil rights even in democracies against Rousseauians’ ideas of the absolute reign of the democratic volunté générale.Google Scholar

69 Jürgen Habermas, Faktizität und Geltung 292, et. seq. (1992), on the role of constitutional courts.Google Scholar

70 Mager, in Grundgesetzkommentar I, Art. 4 Rn 65 (v. Münch/Kunig eds. 2000) rightly draws the attention to the question of age, concluded, however, that in early age before 14 teachers should not display any religious symbols.Google Scholar

71 BVerfGE 88, 87 (96).Google Scholar

72 Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, OJ L 180, 19.7.2000, p. 22.Google Scholar

73 Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation, OJ, 2.12.2000, p. 16.Google Scholar

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78 BVerfGE 41, 29 (49 et. seq.); 52, 223 (236 et. seq.).Google Scholar

79 Immanuel Kant, Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft 99, (Akademie Ausgabe, Bd. VI).Google Scholar

80 Id. at 98 et. seq., 170.Google Scholar