When the European Court of Human Rights encounters the face

Abstract

The +Italic burqa -Italic - also sometimes (and inaccurately) referred to as niqab - raises key questions as to the competing concepts of rights and religious freedom in Europe. +Superscript 1 -Superscript The answer will vary according to one's point of view. In its recent +Italic S.A.S. -Italic v France ruling, +Superscript 6 -Superscript the European Court of Human Rights seems to have set limits to a free-choice conception of human rights in general and to religious freedom in particular. In upholding the French ban on the burqa on the basis of the ' vivre ensemble ' principle, the Strasbourg Court has endorsed the French Republican approach to laicite , together with a more socio-ethical concept of human beings based on the face-to-face encounter. W