Contributi di José Ramón Polo Sabau

Algunas impresiones personales en torno a la evolución de la asignatura del Derecho Eclesiástico del Estado en las últimas décadas

Some remarks on the development of the subject of Law and Religion in Spanish legal studies

ABSTRACT: These remarks take as their initial pretext the recent publication of an academic work offering a retrospective view of the development of the subject of Law and Religion in Spanish universities which, in the author's opinion, is deeply biased and therefore gives a distorted image of both the current situation of this discipline in our legal studies and its future expectations. Against this, the author offers here his own personal impressions on the subject.

SUMARIO: 1. Introducción - 2. Caracteres generales del proyecto de ley: el reconocimiento del matrimonio de creencia - 3. Algunas claves jurídicas de esta nueva propuesta normativa.

A New Bill to Recognize the Belief Marriage in England: the Marriage (Approved Organisations) Bill

ABSTRACT: In this paper the author briefly examines the content of the Marriage (Approved Organisations) Bill, a proposal recently introduced in the House of Lords, which is aimed to amend the wedding law in England and Wales in order to recognise al last the humanist marriages and, more widely, the marriages of the so called belief bodies that have already been introduced in almost every other jurisdiction in the British Islands, so these new belief marriages can be granted an equivalent status to the one currently conferred to religious marriages.

SUMARIO: 1. Introducción - 2. El significado esencial de las cláusulas religiosas de la Primera enmienda de la Constitución federal - 3. El argumento de la tradición histórica en la interpretación judicial de la Establishment Clause - 4. La tradición histórica como excepción a la aplicabilidad de los normales parámetros jurídicos de validez en materia de aconfesionalidad.

The Supreme Court of the United States and the use or historical tradition in Establishment Clause jurisprudence

ABSTRACT: This paper deals with the study of the use of history and tradition that has been made by the Supreme Court of the United States when deciding certain cases concerning the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. It explores the way in which, when confronted with certain practices that are in appearance clearly inconsistent with the Establishment Clause, sometimes the Supreme Court has simply ignored the different tests commonly settled for constitutional adjudication in this particular field such as the Lemon test, and has relied on historical tradition as the governing principle for that purpose. This circumstance leading to the setting of a controversial carve-out in Establishment Clause adjudication that might be better explained as a result of politics and political and social pressures rather than as a product of principled constitutional interpretation.

SUMARIO: 1. Introducción: las manifestaciones de la confesionalidad inglesa y su creciente cuestionamiento por la doctrina científica - 2. Confesionalidad estatal y sistema educativo en Inglaterra - 3. Los actos de culto colectivo en la escuela pública ante la High Court.

The Place of Religion in State-funded Schools of England: the Act of Collective Worship for the First Time on Trial at the High Court

ABSTRACT: Collective Worship that needs to be wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character is currently a statutory requirement in all State-funded schools under English law. This legal requirement, along with the inevitable presence in this same type of schools of religious education that also has to reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian, whilst taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain, are both two requirements that have been frequently considered as very controversial and arising from them are serious concerns about their compliance with human rights legal framework. Very recently a High Court action has been launched against this law on collective worship, in a case that will be heard on 29 November 2019 (Lee and Lizanne Harris v. Oxford Diocesan Schools Trust). This paper gives notice of this recent judicial challenge and briefly explores its main legal implications.

SUMARIO: 1. Introducción - 2. La prohibición de la blasfemia en el marco de una Constitución de clara inspiración católica - 3. El cuestionamiento de una norma de tan dudoso encaje en el sistema constitucional de derechos y libertades - 3.1. Las críticas en general al régimen constitucional de las confesiones religiosas - 3.2. La controversia específica en torno a la prohibición de la blasfemia en la Constitución irlandesa - 4. Algunas conclusiones y una razonable expectativa.

The controversial offence of blasphemy in the Irish Constitution

ABSTRACT: As recently as June 2018 the Irish Government has approved a referendum to remove the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution; the referendum will be held in October this year. This paper briefly examines the historical and legal backgrounds of this controversial prohibition that survived the 1972 reform of the constitutional provisions in the field of Church and State that, among other aspects, conferred a special position to the Catholic Church, and it does so in order to underline the importance and the potential consequences of the proposed reform in case of an affirmative vote in the upcoming referendum. For this analysis the author gives prior consideration to the fundamental meaning and scope of the constitutional provisions currently in force in the area of Law and Religion and, once this framework is summarized, the paper turns to reflect primarily on the legal and judicial developments that have taken place in the last decades relating the offence of blasphemy in Irish Law.

SUMARIO: 1. Introducción - 2. Caracteres esenciales del sistema matrimonial en Irlanda del Norte - 3. La sentencia de la High Court de 9 de junio de 2017 en el caso In Re Laura Smyth - 4. Conclusiones: hacia el pleno reconocimiento de los matrimonios de creencia en las islas británicas.

The recognition of the so called belief marriages in Northern Ireland: a revolutionary High Court decision (9 June 2017)

ABSTRACT: In a context in which most other countries in the British Islands have allready recognised the validity of the so called belief marriages, very recently the Northern Ireland High Court has delivered its decision in the case In Re Laura Smyth, concerning the autorisation of humanist celebrants to perform a legally valid and binding humanist wedding ceremony in Northern Ireland, as it had been requested by the applicant in this case. In this extremely important decision, Mr Justice Colton declares that the initial denial by the General Register Office of the applicant’s request was in breach of section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 as contrary to the applicant’s rights under Article 9 and Article 14 ECHR, and consequently makes a declaration against the General Register Office in order to grant the application for the requested temporary authorisation to humanist celebrants. This paper summarizes and conducts a preliminary analysis of this decision’s content.

SUMARIO: 1. Introducción - 2. Breve referencia a los cambios introducidos en la forma estrictamente civil de celebración conyugal - 3. La eficacia civil del matrimonio celebrado en forma religiosa - 3.1. Los caracteres esenciales de la normativa precedente - 3.2. Las novedades introducidas por la Ley de la Jurisdicción Voluntaria - 3.2.1. El matrimonio de las confesiones con acuerdo de cooperación con el Estado - 3.2.2. El matrimonio de las confesiones con notorio arraigo declarado – 4. Consideraciones conclusivas.