Contributi di Francesco Alicino

The Regulation of the Religious Phenomenon in the Difficult Path of the European Legal Space

ABSTRACT: Il problema che le odierne società si trovano ad affrontare non è struturalmente diverso da quello che ha innervato il lungo processo di secolarizzazione: come conciliare l’unità con la diversità? Come offrire una cittadinanza paritaria favorendo la coesistenza fra credenti (nei culti tradizionali o ufficiali), diversamente credenti (dei nuovi insediamenti di popolazioni come, ad esempio, portati delle migrazioni) e i non credenti (in nessuna religione)? Le difficoltà di queste domande si accentuano con riferimento alla tutela effettiva e concreta della libertà di pensiero, coscienza e religione e alla luce dell’operatività dell’Unione Europea e della Convenzione europea dei diritti dell’uomo, i quali hanno dato vita e corpo a un “nuovo" spazio giuridico sovrastatale. L’obiettivo di questo articolo è capirne l’approccio rispetto ai poli normativi dell’eguaglianza e della differenza nei rapporti di convivenza e con riferimento al fattore cultural-religioso.

ABSTRACT: The problem faced by societies today is not structurally different from that which has underpinned the long process of secularisation: how to reconcile unity with diversity? How to offer equal citizenship by allowing believers of different origins and denominations, as well as non-believers (atheists, agnostics or rationalists), to coexist? The difficulty of these questions is accentuated when dealing with religious freedom and when referring to the European Union and the European Convention on Human Rights. They are archetypes of the new European legal space. The aim of this article is to understand the approach of this legal space with regard to the normative poles of equality and diversity, and with reference to the cultural and religious phenomena.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione. – 2. Verso un costituzionalismo deterritorializzato. – 3. Genesi e sviluppo del nuovo spazio giuridico europeo. – 4. Sistema convenzionale e fattore religioso. – 4.1 Sistema convenzionale e sistemi di relazione Stato-Chiese. – 5. L’Unione europea, il processo di integrazione e la religione. – 5.1. Le inespresse potenzialità dell’UE. – 6. Conclusioni.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. Esperienze normative - 3. Nello spazio giuridico europeo e internazionale - 4. Valida e inefficace - 5. Una ragionevole normativa penale - 6. Rigidità e flessibilità - 7. Fondati timori - 8. Us and Them - 9. Le culture tra eguaglianza e differenze – 10. Conclusioni.

Cultural Defenses between Monoculturalism and Multiculturalism

ABSTRACT: In an increasingly globalized world, individuals and groups are seeking to have their own culture respected, maintaining their cultural diversity in the face of growing globalization. These claims are connected with the formal conceptions of the principle of equality, which often produces substantial and discriminatory inequalities. This situation becomes even more complicated when related to the specific field of criminal law concerning cultural defenses. The author analyses the different approaches to cultural defenses, those oscillating from multiculturalism to monoculturalism, taking into account the Italian and European-international legal context.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. Alle radici del pluralismo della disparità - 3. Le definizioni a contrario - 4. Le minoranze nel sentiero del principio di laicità - 5. Le minoranze religiose alle prese con il genus e la species della laicità - 6. La rilevanza legale delle minoranze religiose - 7. L’autonomia delle confessioni diverse - 8. Le diseconomie esterne del diritto comune delle intese - 9. Come ridurre le diseconomie esterne negative - 10. Conclusioni e prospettive.

The Legal Discipline of Minority Religions. The External Diseconomy of Italy’s Favor Religionis

ABSTRACT: This article analyses the State’s legal discipline regulating minority religions, which are part of the current religious pluralism in Italy. Pluralism is not new in the Italian context. Various minority religions have long been part of the national scene and often enjoyed a level of public consideration far superior compared to their numerical consistency. However, today in Italy there are religious organizations that, in the light of the traditional ex parte Ecclesiæ favor religionis and the method of state-church(es) relations, stress some difficulties of constitutional relevance. In particular, these difficulties have increasingly come to be seen in terms of “negative externalities”: while creating privileges for the Catholic Church and few minority denominations, it produces unreasonable discriminations against all other religions. That is particularly the case of legal status of “new” minority religious, made up mainly of immigrants.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. L’idioma della laicità - 3. Laicità e bilateralità - 4. La difficile convivenza con il favor religionis - 5. Gli Islam e l’ateismo - 6. Gli obblighi internazionali della laicità - 7. Conclusioni. Le potenzialità nascoste della laicità.

Secularism and Bilateralism Thirty Years after the 1989 Landmark Constitutional Decision. The Italian Secularism tested by Islam and atheism

ABSTRACT: In 1989 the Constitutional Court stated that secularism (laicità) is one of the supreme principles (principi supremi) of the Italian constitutional order. On the basis of articles 2, 3, 7, 8, 19 and 20 of the 1948 Constitution, the Court said that secularism does not affirm indifference of the State towards religions; rather, it sustains the protection of religious freedom in a context of cultural-confessional pluralism. With this essay the author examines the way the Italian supreme principle of secularism has developed in the last thirty years, especially in relation to the so-called bilateralism method (as stated in articles 7.2 and 8.3 of the Italian Constitution) and in the light of today’s pluralism, which is characterized by the presence of new collective organizations, such as those referring to Islam and atheism.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. Libertà di culto e pandemia - 3. Logica deontica e bilancia costituzionale - 4. Le critiche agli interventi governativi - 5. Logica giuscostituzionale - 6. Libertas ecclesiae e pandemia - 7. Conclusioni e prospettive.

Constitution and Religion in Italy in a Time of Pandemic

ABSTRACT: In the first half of 2020, in Italy the coronavirus (Covid-19) has spread quickly, putting the country in an unprecedented emergency. From here stemmed the Government’s measures, which were (and are) without parallel in the history of the Italian State. These measures have led to an animated debate, especially when associated to the limitations imposed on the public liturgical life of the Catholic Church. That was also incorporated into the discussion concerning the long-standing principle-method of bilateralism, as established in Articles 7.2 and 8.3 of the Italian Constitution. With this article the Author analyses this debate in the light of the constitutional duty to protect human health, in the individual and collective sense of the terms.

SOMMARIO: 1. Preambolo - 2. La potenza delle parole - 3. La forza di un sentimento - 4. Inventarsi la verità - 5. La desacralizzazione di Dio - 6. La sacralizzazione dell’uomo - 7. Epilogo.

Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero. The Power of the Words

ABSTRACT: Set during the reign of the emperor Nero, Quo Vadis tells the story of the love that develops between a young Christian woman and a Roman officer who, after meeting her fellow Christians, converts to her religion. Underlying their relationship, the novel becomes a good stratagem to emphasize the contrast between the worldly opulence of the Roman Empire and the poverty and spiritual power of the Christians, whose concepts would play a crucial role during the long history of the Western Legal System. With this paper the Author tries to explain how important a novel like Quo Vadis could be in order to better understand the strong impact of the Christian tradition on the history of Western constitutionalism.

SUMMARY: 1. Introduction - 2. The Vertical and Horizontal Influences - 3. Atheism, laïcité and Church - 4. Atheism, laïcité and Islam - 5. Today’s Popular Sources of Atheism - 6. Conclusion.

ABSTRACT: With this article, the Author outlines the legal issues involving the atheism in France, analysing them in the light of the principle of laïcité. France has a long history of criticism of religion. Many philosophes of the Enlightenment, for example, have provided the classical writings in this field. In this sense, they were able to aliment two major streams of thought of the magmatic French atheism: one is based on the horizontal influences arising from the effect of increasing worldwide travel with the discovery that people do not necessary share the same views and beliefs about the nature of human being; the other is centred on vertical arguments bubbling up from the past in a very form of scepticism and realism. With its multi-faceted and articulated view, the French atheism has also been promoted by a number of movements devoted to arguing the case for non-belief and for its political expression in laïcité. In this manner, the Author tries to demonstrate that, since the Great Revolution and during the long history of the French constitutional system, laïcité de combat and atheism has been influencing each other in a constantly shifting process of mutual adaptation.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. La lunga tradizione del diritto islamico - 2.1. La norma religiosa nelle impostazioni radicalizzanti - 3. La reazione dei legislatori e il ruolo dei giusdicenti. Brevi considerazioni sul caso degli USA - 3.1. Brevi considerazioni sul caso della Francia - 4. La reazione dei legislatori e il ruolo dei giusdicenti in Italia - 5. Conclusioni.

ABSTRACT: What is the real relationship between the existing forms of (religious) terrorism and Islam? And how do the Western constitutional democracies react in times of emergency and threats of so-called Islamic terrorism? The article tries to answer these questions, focusing the attention on specific issues, such as those referring to the Islamic tradition - and the relative legal system - and some national legal orders, like the USA, France and Italy.

SUMMARY : 1. Introduction - 2. The Politicization of Religion and the Nationalization of Confessions - 3. The Place of Religion and Religious Confession - 4. The Constituent (Chosen) People and Religious Power-Sharing Mechanism - 5. The Education System and Religious Education - 6. The Legal Status of Churches and the State-Religions Relationship - 7. Conclusion.

SUMMARY: 1. Introduction – 2. The Relationship State-Confessions and Religious Ministers – 2.1. The “Common” Legislation of intese and the 1929 Act – 2.2. State’s Law and Religious Ministers – 3 . Imam in Italy. Is that a Religious Minister? – 3.1. The Connection State-Islamic Organizations – 3 .2. Islamic Groups as Religious Denominations – 3.3. The Bilateral Legislation – 3.4. A Possible Collaboration – 4. Conclusion.

ABSTRACT: In Italy imams are more than 800 members. As imams, they are almost all self-taught people. As citizens, most of the times they have a precarious job. During the week, they normally take care of things other than religion. They perform religious functions in their spare time. Moreover, to see them working as imams, you have to go down in some underground parking or in apartments converted into mosques, where sometimes you see minaret and other Islamic symbols, but only in either the picture or in the paintings hanging on the wall. In the end of the day, we know little or almost nothing about imams. Besides, the Italian law normally do not recognise them as religious authorities. Nevertheless, as imams they play a very important role in local Muslim communities that, under the pressing process of immigration, hold nowadays more than two millions persons. The paper will analyse the status of Islamic imams in Italy, comparing them with the status of other religious authorities (priests, rabbis, pastors ecc.). In particular, this comparative perspective will be focused on both angles: on the one hand, the research will compare the role of imams with those of religious authorities within their respective community; on the other, we will compare imams with considered the different way through which Italian law treats both imams and other religious authority . This perspective will give us a possibility to underline how both the social context and the Italian legal framework (regulating the State-religions connexions) manage religious claims.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. Il referendum abrogativo e la legge n. 222 del 1985 - 3. L’art. 47 della legge n. 222 del 1985 nel sistema delle fonti … - 4. (segue) … nella “costituzione materiale” e nel diritto internazionale generalmente riconosciuto - 5. La natura “atipica” della legge n. 222 del 1985 - 6. Il meccanismo dell’otto per mille e il limite delle leggi tributarie ex art. 75 (comma 2) Cost. - 7. L’otto per mille e i principî costituzionali in materia di contribuzione fiscale e spesa pubblica - 8. Brevi note comparative fra otto per mille e cinque per mille - 9. Conclusioni. Il “diritto comune” dell’otto per mille e l’eguale libertà delle confessioni.

ABSTRACT: In April 2013 an Italian political party proposed a referendum (as stated in the article 75 of Italian Constitution) to abolish part of the article 47 of the 222/1985 Act concerning the public funding to religious denominations with the 0.008 of the income tax (called IRPEF ). According to this law all Italian taxpayers can participate to a sort of ‘poll’ to allocate 0.008 of their income tax ( IRPEF ) to the either the Catholic Church or the State by signing under one of the other in the tax form. The entire fund (i.e. the overall amount of 0,008 of the IRPEF ) will then be divided proportionally amongst the choices selected by the tax payer who signed to give 0.008 of their taxes to specific institutions (e.g. the Catholic Church, the State, etc). In doing so, even the tax payers who did not choose any denomination will end up funding one according to the selection made by those who did sign to give their taxes to a religious group or to the State. In this essay the Author analyses some juridical aspects of that particular funding system which represents an important feature of the discipline regulating the relationship between State and Churches, including religious denominations other than Catholicism.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione. – 2. I presupposti teologici. – 3. Tendenza teocratica, ma visione profana dei fenomeni normativi. – 4. La doppia faccia della secolarizzazione. – 5. Il costituzionalismo (medievale) cristiano. – 6. Le origini del costituzionalismo occidentale. Fra apolitismo radicale … – 7. (segue) … e messianismo temporale e rivoluzione scientifica. – 8. Westfalia (1648): la territorializzazione del diritto religioso. – 9. La nuova religione della perfetta ragione. – 10. Dalla fine della sovranità westfaliana, al secondo dopoguerra … – 11. … (segue) e alla questione islamica di questo secolo.

ABSTRACT: During the long history of the Western Legal System, Christian religion has been playing a key role in defining some of the pillars of modern constitutionalism. This is evident in respect to important constitutional principles like, for example, the notion of “person”, as established in the article 6 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law”). At the same time, some theological notions of medieval constitutional thought represented the political pedestal of the absolute sovereignty of the State, which is antithetical to the logic of constitutional legal system. With this article, the Author analyses the way some theological notions of Christianity have been “secularized” – and then “codified” – in the Western constitutional States, influencing the pillars of contemporary democracies. This could explain, for example, why the legal instruments carrying out the relationship State-Churches in certain Western democracies do not work very well as they did in the past. In fact, from time to time, these instruments have been able to create the conditions for a proper interaction – an  “overlapping consensus”  – between religious groups and public authorities as well as an acceptable balance between universal principles of Western constitutionalism and ethnic-cultural-religious differences. Nowadays, however, these same instruments seem to fail. Precisely because immigration and today’s multicultural societies see masses of people that come to Western Countries with their religious identities and, sometimes, with a global perspective which complicates the century old tension  between universal principles – launched by the history of the Western constitutionalism – and the current cultural-religious belongings.

SOMMARIO: 1. Prologo. Le origini della Secular Age – 2. I princìpi fondamentali della Chiesa di Scozia: la Professione di Fede e i Catechisms – 3. Il legame fra il mondo accademico e quello ecclesiastico – 4. La macchina processuale (ecclesiastica) e il Right of Patronage – 5. L’influenza del giusnaturalismo razionalista sulla dottrina teologica cristiana - 6. Lo sguardo scettico del bon David – 7. Epilogo. La progressiva secolarizzazione dello Scottish Enlightenment.

ABSTRACT: Between the late XVII century and the second half of the XVIII century Scotland faced very important constitutional changes, involving the relationships between the State and the Churches. In this context, the "religious question" continued to play a crucial role, finding its place – as so often in the past – at the top of the political agenda. However, this agenda was also influenced by the intellectual movement called Scottish Enlightenment, which gave an important contribution to the evolution of the Scottish Established Church that was Calvinist in its official documents, but Presbyterian in the ecclesiastical order. After general considerations about the process of secularization (which spread out in Europe at that time) the author analyses the peculiar evolution of relationships between the Scottish Established Church and the Scottish Enlightenment, which also affected the constitutional system in this country.

SUMMARY: 1. Introduction – 2. Relation-Collaboration between the State and Churches in Constitutional Democracies – 3. The laicité à la française Tested by a Deprivatised Religious Process – 3.1. The French Rigid Secularism. Freedom (of Religion) through the State – 4. Canada’s Open Secularism. The Question of Religious-Based Family Law Disputes – 4.1 Reasonable Accommodation and “New” Religious Nomoi Groups – 5. Collaboration-Relation between the State and Churches in Italy – 5.1. The Italian Secularism Tested by the New “Religious Geography” – 6. Conclusion.

ABSTRACT: Under the pressing process of immigration and globalisation many Western constitutional democracies have moved from a number of religions, sharing a common culture, to today's age of diversity. As opposed to the past, the current democracies are facing the lack of overlapping consensus over the basic constitutional laws: namely, the meaning and the scope of freedom of religion, secularism, the separation Church-State, equal treatment and the rule of law. This is because individuals often come to adopt their basic values by very different ways. The nature, scope and force of such values are likely to be affected by competing and, sometimes, contested fundamental values and worldviews. From here stems the pressing tension – or dilemma – between “unity” and “diversity”. This essay starts with general considerations about the freedom of religion principle, strictly related with the “separation” as well as “collaboration” between secular States and Churches; then the author analyses three case-studies (France, Canada and Italy), pointing out some specific legal approaches. In particular he focuses the analyses over the French “droit commun”, the Italian ecclesiastic law and the Canadian arbitral tribunals that, especially in family law, allow disputes to be arbitrated using religious jurisdictions.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduction – 2. Part I: Theological and Historical Roots of Western Constitutionalism – 2.1. King-Servant of God vs. Tyrant-Servant of the Devil – 2.2. Hobbes and la religion de l’État – 2.3. John Locke’s Principle of Tolerance. The Modern Constitutionalism – 2.4. Roger Williams: The Apostle of Religious Liberty. The Roots of American Secularism – 3. Part II: The secularismlaïcité – 3.1. The Double Separation (Emancipation): State from Religion, Religion from the State – 3.2. Islam and la laïcité à la française – 3.3. Individual Rights vs Group Rights – 4. Conclusion. Secularism and Supranational Constitutionalism

SOMMARIO: 1. – Prologo: i fatti. – 2. Incompatibilità assolute e relative ovvero ... – 3. ... l’altra “faccia” della specificità ossia ... – 4. ... l’irrimediabile iato tra il matrimonio civile e quello canonico. – 5. Epilogo: specificità del diritto canonico e il regime civilistico del consenso.

SOMMAIRE: 1. Les coordonnées (constitutionnelles) de la liberté d’expression – 2. La liberté d’expression en matière religieuse – 3. La religion? Un objet susceptible d’être commenté, critiqué, discuté … – 3.1. … ou bien la «sacro-sainte» liberté d’expression ne doit pas céder devant la religion – 3.2. Le pluralisme comme distinction entre critique (anti)religieuse et diffamation – 4. La religion? Un objet susceptible d’être caricaturé – 4.1. Droit de satire, liberté d’expression et laïcité: un lien réciproque de cause à effet – 5. Les limites – 5.1. L’ordre public comme limite à la liberté d’expression – 5.2. La liberté d’autrui comme limite à la liberté d’expression – 6. Religion, liberté d’expression et ethnicité. «Ils» étaient Arabes, ils deviennent musulmans – 6.1. L’école laïque et laïcité de l’État – 6.2. Le rôle du Conseil d’État – 7. Universalisme des droits fondamentaux et dimension collective de la religion – 7.1. Conclusion: de la tolérance au pluralisme.

SOMMARIO: 1. Il perché dello Stato laico: la matrice liberal-democratica – 2. Le “definizioni” giuridiche – 2.1. È lingua artificiale il diritto – 3. Il mos italicus dello Stato laico – 3.1. Genesi della laicità all’italiana – 3.2. 1929: conciliati in nome della SS.MA Trinità ... – 3.3. ... ovvero il ritorno a “un’antica espressione medioevale” – 4. De-finire (giuridicamente) la laicità nell’ordinamento repubblicano – 5. Il ruolo della giurisprudenza costituzionale – 5.1 L’operazione definitoria della Corte – 5.2. Una lettura laica dell’art. 3 Cost. – 5.3. Laicità = aconfessionalità – 5.4. Il côté “neutrale” dello Stato laico – 6. Laicità fluida e modellabile ad oggetto disponibile –7. Le “autentiche” e “sane” laicità ... – 8. ... e l’idioma laico della Corte.