The ‘Radiating Effects’ of the European Court of Human Rights on Social Mobilisations Around Religion in Europe – An Analytical Frame

Abstract

While a growing non-legal scholarship has begun to explore the domestic implementation of international court judgments in national law and policy, virtually no attention has been paid to their indirect effects. Yet the indirect effects are arguably far more important than the direct impact judgments can have by means of their formal implementation by state authorities. Indirect effects include the ways in which international human rights judgments may influence domestic debates in law, politics and academia, raise public consciousness, change how social actors perceive and articulate their grievances and claims, empower national rights institutions, or prompt mobilization among civil society and other rights advocates. This paper sets out an analytical framework for the Grassrootsmobilise research in its study of the indirect effects of ECtHR religion-related case law. In so doing it seeks to start filling the gap in academic research and knowledge about the indirect effects of human rights case law, specifically in the area of religion and religious freedom.