Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/57485 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Preprints of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods No. 2011,6
Publisher: 
Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn
Abstract: 
Throughout history, people have suffered for the sake of their religion. Religious organisations have been forbidden or governments have tightly controlled them. The constitutional protection of freedom of religion is a necessity. In a religiously pluralistic world, granting the guarantee is also in the state's best interest. Yet religions have been hesitant to embrace the guarantee. It implies secularism. Religious freedom is balanced against other freedoms, and against legitimate state interests. Government is faced with social forces that are grounded in eternity and that cannot be proven to be wrong. Seemingly the constitutional protection is a threatening for religions and the state as it is beneficial. Yet the essentially pragmatic nature of law overcomes the tragic dilemma - albeit only at the price of acknowledging that jurisprudence is policy-making.
Subjects: 
religions freedom
neutrality principle
human rights
pragmatism
proportionality principle
balancing
margin of appreciation
regulability
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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