Limitations on Religion in a Liberal Democratic Public Order: Christianity, Islam, and the Partial Secularity of the European Union

Abstract

European integration arose partly out of horror at the consequences of fascism and fear of its totalitarian counterpart, Soviet Communism. It is therefore unsurprising that the European Union (EU) has been committed, to an increasingly explicit degree, to the liberal democratic system of government throughout its history. ( e EU recognizes religion’s potentially totalitarian aspects and therefore requires certain limits on religious infl uence over the law and politics as part of its commitment to the principles of liberal democracy. ( is paper shows how the Union has seen excessive religious infl uence in the legal and political arenas as a threat to the autonomy of the public sphere, to individual autonomy in the private sphere as well as to important values such as gender equality. It demonstrates how EU law and policies in relation to the enlargement of the Union and the integration of migrants have required applicant States and individual migrants respectively to indicate acceptance of limitations religious infl uence over law and society as a condition of membership of, or residence in, the European Union. ( us, States have been required to maintain the autonomy of the public sphere from religious infl uence and to refrain from enacting legislation which enforces compliance with religious morality at the expense of individual autonomy. Similarly, migrants have been required to indicate their commitment to liberal principles such as gender equality and individual self-determination in matters of sexuality, even when such principles contradict their religious beliefs. EU law has therefore, sanctioned far reaching State interference in the private sphere of beliefs and opinions in the order to protect the general principle of the autonomy of the individual in the private sphere. Furthermore, the Union’s attempts to impose