Contenuti per la categoria: Religion law

Summary: 1. Introduction - 2. Italian legal responses to COVID-19: the Italian constitutional and legal framework on religious freedom - 3. The suspension of religious assemblies during phase one of the pandemic - 4. A “cautious resumption” of religious gatherings during the phase two in Italy - 5. U.S. legal responses to COVID-19: U.S. constitutional and legal framework about religious freedom - 6. The legal patchwork because of the pandemic - 7. Judicial balance between individual liberties and the preservation of health - 8. Litigation in lower courts about the exercise of religious freedom during Covid-19 - 9 New creative ways of worshipping in Covid-19 times: drive-in religious services - 10. Third-party burdens and the successful nondiscrimination approach - 11. Department of Justice statements - 12 Supreme Court intervention in temporary state restrictions on religious assemblies - 13. “Religious America” and “secular” Italy during Covid-19 phase one - 14. Management of religious freedom during the pandemic and the lack or presence of a statute governing religious freedom - 15. Effect of the pandemic on the question of whose religious freedom should be protected - 16. Guaranteeing a fair level of religious accommodation during a pandemic - 17. Enhanced need to balance the exercise of religious freedom with third-party harm during a pandemic - 18. Impact of the pandemic on the exercise of religious freedom in the long term.

ABSTRACT: The so-called lockdown, imposed to restrain (or at least limit) the spread of COVID-19, has, in the over four seemingly endless months since it started, had an overwhelming impact not only on our personal lives, but also on domestic regulatory frameworks. Legal systems responded individually, and with differences to the pandemic emergency, ranging from a complete interruption of the collective exercise of religious worship (Italy), to a more cautious recognition of forms of religious accommodation (United States). The present paper compares the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the exercise of religious freedom in the United States and the Italian legal contexts, and investigates how the pandemic crisis emphasized underlying judicial, political, sociocultural, and economic challenges, giving rise to a tension between competing rights and exacerbating concerns about the “special” role of religion. As the COVID situation is changing so rapidly in the United States, in Italy, and around the world, I clarify that the information in the present paper relates at the situation as at the end of June 2020.

SOMMARIO: 1 - Introduzione - 2. Il quadro pluralistico dell’ebraismo diasporico e delle sue organizzazioni - 3. Peculiarità dell’organizzazione dell’ebraismo italiano - 4. Pluralismo interno e tensioni nel contesto unitario delle Comunità - 5. Le origini storiche del peculiare assetto organizzativo dell’ebraismo italiano: l’assenza del movimento riformato in Italia e la normativa statualistica del 1930-31 - 6. La struttura unitaria e l’adesione delle Comunità all’ortodossia nello Statuto e nell’Intesa - 7. Conclusioni: la necessaria conciliazione tra pluralismo e unitarietà tra le varie anime dell’ebraismo italiano.

The Union of Italian Jewish Communities between adherence to Orthodox Judaism and representation of all Jew in Italy: Is the constitutional Agreement of 1987 with the Italian State still adequate?

ABSTRACT: Relations between Italian Judaism and the Italian State are governed legally by the Agreement (“Intesa”) concluded in 1987 pursuant to Article 8 of the Italian Constitution, enforced by Law No. 101 of 1989.The organization of the Italian Jewish communities and their central “Union” is governed by the By-Laws (“Statuto”) adopted by them at that time, which reflect the Intesa. In conformity also with the tradition of Italian Judaism local communities take care of all Jewish activities, religious, social or educational, and the Unione officially represents all Jews and Jewish groups. Since 1987 however, there has been an explosion of various Jewish groups and denominations in Italy, from the Lubavitch to Reformed groups, which organize themselves autonomously. These groups considers themselves part of Italian Judaism and recognize more or less the central role of the local communities and Unione. However they increasingly ask a say in the latter management.. The issue discussed in the paper is whether the unitary structure of Italian Judaism, as enshrined in Intesa and recognized by Italian public authorities, is still adequate to cope with this evolution, and whether a plurality of independent Jewish organizations, separately recognized by Italian authorities would be compatible with Article 8 of the Constitution and preferable in practice.

SOMMARIO: 1. Le “nuove” obiezioni di coscienza nelle società multiculturali. Il rifiuto dell’obbligo vaccinale - 2. Religioni e vaccini - 3. La situazione negli altri Paesi, in particolare il caso degli USA - 4. L’obbligo vaccinale in Italia - 5. È configurabile il diritto all’obiezione di coscienza rispetto alle vaccinazioni obbligatorie?

The Refusal of Mandatory Vaccinations for Conscientious Reasons. A Comparative Overlook

ABSTRACT: The paper analyzes the possibility to design a new shape of conscientious objection : the refusal of mandatory vaccinations due to religious or ideological reasons. Some religions are against vaccines because of the ingredients they contain. In other cases the refusal to be vaccinated is based on the idea that only God can protect health. The legislatures of some Countries recognize the conscientious objection to mandatory vaccinations. The paper focuses the topic in a comparative perspective, paying attention to the italian and european context.

SUMMARY: 1. Introduction - 2. Brief Remarks on the Notion of Halal - 3. The Interests at Stake in Halal Certification - 4. Actors and Instruments Involved in Halal Certification - 5. The Constitutional Regulation of the Religious Factor and Its Impact on Halal Certification - 6. Halal Italia and the 2010 Inter-Ministerial Convention - 7. Conclusion.

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to examine the Italian experience with halal certification and, in particular, the case of Halal Italia. After some brief preliminary remarks on the notion of halal, I will examine the general context of halal certification, by focusing on the interests at stake and on the actors and instruments involved. Next, I will take into account the impact of the constitutional regulation of the religious factor on halal certification. Finally, my analysis will turn to the trademark Halal Italia and the 2010 Inter-Ministerial Convention.

SOMMARIO: 1. Multicultural societies and conflicts of loyalty: cultural crimes - 2. The Italian reaction to cultural crimes - 3. The case of kirpan: the recent judgment of the Court of Cassation - 4. A questionable decision: the fundamental role of pluralism in Western societies - 5. Conclusions: the centrality of human dignity.

ABSTRACT: Pluralist societies pose new challenges to legal systems, having to find trade-offs between accommodating the necessities of minorities and security concerns. Religions often impose prescriptive rules on the behaviour of their believers, leading to moral internal conflicts when these lead to break State laws. In Italy, this subject was already discussed between legal scholars, before it received large public attention in 2017, where a judgement of the Cassation Court has upheld the conviction of a Sikh indian for withholding a kirpan, a ritual dagger central to his faith. This work provides an overview of the debate raised by the ruling, with particular emphasis on the challenges in devising policies that address security concerns without sacrificing religious freedom and pluralism. The Italian answer to cultural crimes will be analysed in depth, given the distinctive element of positive laicità in 1948 Constitution that characterizes its context. In the conclusion, a possible solution focused on human dignity is suggested.

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa - 2. La blasphemy law - 3. Un campo di falsa, un sorso d’acqua e il “peccato” contro Asia Bibi - 4. La sentenza della Corte Suprema - 5. Leading case o moral suasion?

“More sinned against than sinning”:  the Pakistan Supreme Court and Asia Bibi case

ABSTRACT:  Asia Bibi case, a Christian woman falsely accused of being a blasphemer, finds her ‘judge in Berlin’ in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The Court does not address the ratio legis of blasphemy law but points out how contrary to the spirit of Islam is the misuse of law for political purposes. The wide international echo of the case makes this SC verdict a possible leading case in theme of presumption of innocence.

SOMMARIO 1. Introduction - 2. Premise - 3. Ancient history - 4. Roman law - 5. Aquinas and Canon law - 6. 16th Century: Protestantism and the mercantile era - 7. 17th century: Jusnaturalism - 8. 18th century and 19th centuries: industrialization and capitalism - 9. The prohibition of riba - 10. Similarities between the sharia prescriptions and the ancient Jewish ones - 11. Riba and its recent openings - 12. Riba prohibition in the twentieth century and the sharia-compliant financial instruments - 13. Solutions - 14. Islamic Finance - 15. Conclusions.

ABSTRACT: The article addresses the theme of usury taking into account various viewpoints and traditions, pausing in particular on the Western and Islamic notions of lending at interest, in order to outline its distinctive features in the present days as well as throughout its historical evolution. The author applies a comparative research method, examining both the differences and similarities between the Western and Muslim concept of usury so to present an accurate picture of the phenomenon. In fact, the article aims at answering the latest questions concerning the possibility for the Muslim model to be a valuable resource in overcoming the keep going financial crisis.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. La libertà religiosa e le regole alimentari religiose - 3. Le regole alimentari religiose e la laicità dello Stato - 4. Il menù quaresimale - 5. L’immunità dall’esposizione - 6. Conclusioni.

Religious dietary rules and school lunch menus: a challenge for secularism?

ABSTRACT: The paper starts from a case of dietary pluralism to discuss the possibility to justify menus sensitive to different religious dietary rules in schools’ canteens. Building on an analysis of the idea of secularism, both in its legal interpretation and in its philosophical understanding in terms of neutrality, I try to show that providing for menus sensitive to different religious dietary rules does not amount to a breach of secularism; it is, rather, a legitimate consequence of the protection of individuals’ rights to freedom of conscience and religion. Moreover, whenever institutions take action to devise and implement such menus they can be taken to act on a commitment to respecting the beliefs of minority groups in society without expecting that these groups, which are often migrant communities suffering of well-known problems of social integration, take on the burden to put forward public claims.

SOMMARIO: 1. Considerazioni introduttive sul fondamentalismo odierno: alcune differenze rispetto ai movimenti omologhi dei decenni precedenti - 2. L’influenza del fondamentalismo sulla demografia religiosa e sul contenzioso giurisdizionale negli Stati Uniti d’America - 3. Il fondamentalismo americano protestante e le omologhe istanze etiche e giuridiche di gruppi religiosi contemporanei - 4. La Chiesa di Gesù Cristo dei Santi degli Ultimi Giorni: le origini di una protesta contro la teologia ottocentesca - 5. L’escatologia teocratica dei Testimoni di Geova e le conseguenze ordinamentali - 6. Possibili conclusioni: il ruolo del fondamentalismo cristiano nella conformazione attuale delle istituzioni statunitensi.

The origins of the Christian fundamentalism: comparative approaches and research perspectives

ABSTRACT: The aim of this essay is to demonstrate the Christian roots of the public discourse concerning fundamentalism, its disciplines, groups and legal consequences. This issue implies to go back to the first Christian fundamentalist experiences born and raised during last two centuries in America (with a peculiar focus on the United States). By reconsidering a wide historical period and a not simple variety of local religious communities, it will be possible to underline a substantial and concurrent beginning for similar movements in the progressive development of Jehovah’s Witnesses, new wave Lutheran and Baptist Churches, Church of Latter Day Saints: some of the same faiths and cults still effecting the American recent ecclesiastical controversies.

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa metodologica - 2. Cenni storici sulle comunità musulmane francesi - 3. La re-invenzione di una tradizione? - 4. Mangiare halal a scuola: l’affaire di Chalon-sur-Saône - 5. Conclusioni.

Halal alimentation and the challenges against french laïcité: the request of alternative menu in the school canteens

ABSTRACT: The article will concern the debate about the balance between secularism and religious-driven prerogatives through a narrow focus on the diffusion of halal food in France. In particular, I will shed light on the increasing request of shari'a-compliant food by Muslims in some social spaces, for instance in the school canteens. My research will unfold its arguments in two sections. In the first one, I will address the recent development of halal market in France and try to frame the reasons of such burgeoning activities - revival of Islam or neoliberal marketing strategy? In the second part, I will consider the sentence of Dijon Administrative Tribunal, which in 2017 abolished the decision of the mayor of Chalon-sur-Saône of suppressing halal menu in the school canteens. The verdict might be read as an opinion favourable to Muslim’s prerogatives. Nonetheless, the rationale of the judgement does lie indeed in the defence of the “best interest of the child”, whereas the basic principles of French laicité were not put into discussion.