Publications

Publications round-up (further details below)

Published under Publications

*Texts in green are freely available online

 

JOURNALS

‘Directions in Religious Pluralism in Europe: Mobilizations in the Shadow of European Court of Human Rights Religious Freedom Jurisprudence’, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2015, pp. 54-74 – Effie Fokas

‘Comparative Susceptibility and Differential Effects on the Two European Courts: A Study of Grasstops Mobilizations around Religion’, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2016, pp. 541-574 – Effie Fokas

‘Kokkinakis at the Grassroots Level’, Journal of Religion and Human Rights, 2017, Vol.12, Nos. 2-3, pp. 210-222 – Effie Fokas

‘The Legal Status of Religious Minorities: exploring the impact of the European Court of Human Rights’, Social Compass, 2018, Vol. 65, No. 1, pp. 25-42 – Effie Fokas

Journal Special Issue: European Court of Human Rights and minority religions, Religion, State and Society, 2017, Vol. 45, Nos. 3-4:

Journal Special Issue: Religion and Education in the Shadow of the European Court of Human Rights, Politics and Religion, Forthcoming 2018:

  • ‘Introduction: Religion and Education in the Shadow of the European Court of Human Rights’ – Effie Fokas
  • ‘The “radiating effects” of the ECtHR on social mobilisations around religion and education in Europe’ – Dia Anagnostou and Effie Fokas
  • ‘In-between the Constitution and the European Court of Human Rights: Mobilizations around Religion and Education in Greece’ – Margarita Markoviti
  • ‘Do Not Cross the Line: The State Influence on Religious Education’ – Pasquale Annicchino and Alberta Giorgi
  • ‘Between State Supervision and the ECtHR: Grassroots Mobilization on Religious Education in Turkey’ – Ceren Ozgul
  • ‘Contesting the Place of Religion in Education in Post-Communist Romania: Strategic Uses of the European Court of Human Rights and Its Case Law’ – Liviu Andreescu and Mihai Popa
  • ‘The European Court of Human Rights in national struggles around religion and education’ – Dia Anagnostou and Liviu Andreescu

 

BOOK CHAPTERS

‘Sociology at the intersection between law and religion’, in ed. Silvio Ferrari, Routledge Handbook of Law and Religion, Routledge, 2015, pp. 59-74 – Effie Fokas

‘God’s advocates: The multiple fronts of the war on blasphemy in Greece’, in eds. Jeroen Temperman and Andras Koltay, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression: Comparative, Theoretical and Historical Reflections after the Charlie Hebdo Massacre, Cambridge University Press, 2017, pp. 389-410 – Effie Fokas

‘Grassroots level awareness about religion at the European Court of Human Rights’, in eds. Jeroen Temperman, Jeremy Gunn and Malcolm Evans, The Kokkinakis Papers: Taking Stock of 25 years of ECHR Jurisprudence on Freedom of Religion or Belief, forthcoming – Effie Fokas

‘Religious American and Secular European Courts, or vice versa? A study of institutional cross-pollination’, in ed. Titus Hjelm, Peter L. Berger and the Sociology of Religion: 50 Years after the Sacred Canopy, Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming – Effie Fokas

‘Religion and Human Rights in Greece’, in eds. Giuseppe Giordan and Siniša Zrinščak, Global Eastern Orthodoxy: Politics, Religion, and Human Rights, forthcoming – Effie Fokas

‘The Geopolitics of Transnational Law and Religion: Wars of Conscience and the Framing Effects of Law as a Social Institution’, in eds. Susanna Mancini and Michel Rosenfeld, The Conscience Wars: Rethinking the balance between Religion, Identity and Equality, Cambridge University press, forthcoming – Pasquale Annicchino

“Implementation and impact of Strasbourg Court rulings: the case of religious minorities and their Convention freedoms”, in eds. Jeroen Temperman, Jeremy Gunn and Malcolm Evans, The Kokkinakis Papers: Taking Stock of 25 years of ECHR Jurisprudence on Freedom of Religion or Belief, forthcoming – Dia Anagnostou

 

BOOKS

The European Court of Human Rights and minority religions: messages generated and messages received, eds. Effie Fokas and James T. Richardson, forthcoming:

– ECtHR and case law: clarity, consistency and controversy

  • ‘The principled slope: religious freedom and the European Court of Human Rights’ – Melanie Adrian
  • ‘The freedom to wear religious clothing in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights: an appraisal in the light of states’ positive obligations’ – Marcella Ferri
  • ‘Human rights and religions: ‘living together’ or dying apart? A critical assessment of the dissenting opinion in S.A.S. v. France and the notion of ‘living together’’ – Christos Tsevas
  • ‘Militant or pluralist secularism? The European Court of Human Rights facing religious diversity’ – Roberta Medda-Windischer
  • ‘Update on Jehovah’s Witness cases before the European Court of Human Rights: implications of a surprising partnership’ – James T. Richardson
  • ‘Trying Islam: Muslims before the European Court of Human Rights’ – Turan Kayaoglu
  • ‘A rights-based discourse to contest the boundaries of state secularism? The case of the headscarf bans in France and Turkey’ – Amélie Barras

– The ECtHR at grassroots level

  • ‘The European Court of Human Rights at the grassroots level: who knows what about religion at the ECtHR and to what effects?’ – Effie Fokas
  • ‘The ‘filtering effects’ of ECtHR case law on religious freedoms: legal recognition and places of worship for religious minorities in Greece’ – Margarita Markoviti
  • ‘‘Genuine’ religions and their arena of legitimation in Italy – the role of the ECtHR’ – Alberta Giorgi and Pasquale Annicchino
  • ‘Legal provisions, courts, and the status of religious communities: a socio-legal analysis of inter-religious relations in Romania’ – Mihai Popa and Liviu Andreescu
  • ‘Beyond legal victory or reform: the legal mobilisation of religious groups in the European Court of Human Rights’ – Ceren Ozgul

Alberta Giorgi, Religioni di minoranza tra Europa e laicità locale [Minority religions between Europe and local secularism], Mimesis, forthcoming 2018

Pasquale Annicchino, La religione in giudizio. Tra Corte Suprema degli Stati Uniti e Corte Europea dei diritti dell’uomo, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2018

The European Court of Human Rights for Religious and Non-religious minorities [tentative title], ed. Effie Fokas, forthcoming:

  • ‘The legal status and strategic action of religious minority in Italy’ – Pasquale Annicchino and Alberta Giorgi
  • ‘“Multi-Speed Religions”: The Legal Recognition of Religious Minorities in Greece ‘in the shadow’ of the ECtHR’ – Margarita Markoviti
  • ‘Legal Status as Religious Freedom: the ECtHR and Legal Mobilization among Turkey’s Religious Minorities and Belief Groups’ – Ceren Ozgul
  • ‘Looking to Strasbourg for freedom of conscience and belief: The relevance of the European Court of Human Rights for minority groups in post-communist Romania’ – Mihai Popa

 

ETC.

‘The “radiating effects” of the European Court of Human Rights on social mobilisations around religion in Europe – an analytical frame’, Grassrootsmobilise Working Paper 1, v. 22 May 2015 – Dia Anagnostou and Effie Fokas

‘The Secular Court?’, Grassrootsmobilise Working Paper 2, v. 1 November 2016 – Effie Fokas

‘The ECtHR as a Venue for Greco-Turkish Relations: The Treaty of Lausanne and the Muslim Minority in Western Thrace’, Grassrootsmobilise Working Paper 3, v. 4 May 2017 – Margarita Markoviti

‘Religious Pluralism and Education in Greece’, LSE Hellenic Observatory Blog, 21 February 2017 – Effie Fokas and Margarita Markoviti

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The legal status of religious minorities: Exploring the impact of the European Court of Human Rights

Published under Publications

Effie Fokas

Social Compass, 2017, 65(1), 25-42

In the last 25 years the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has evolved into a venue where some of the most contentious questions related to religion in European society are addressed. This article focuses on the grassroots level impact of the ECtHR in the domain of legal status of religious minorities. In light of scholarly debates questioning the direct effects of courts on the issues they address (i.e., legal reform and policy change), the research on which this article is based explores the nature and extent of the Court’s indirect effects on the legal status of religious minorities: how and to what extent does the ECtHR impact upon religious minorities in terms of their conceptions of, discourse around, and mobilisations pursuing their legal status-related rights? This question is addressed through results of empirical qualitative research conducted at the grassroots level in four country cases – Greece, Italy, Romania and Turkey.

Download here.

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Pushed by the European Court of Human Rights, Greece Reins in Islamic Courts

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Interview with Effie Fokas – The Editors, World Politics Review, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018

On Jan. 9, Greek lawmakers voted to limit the power of Islamic courts operating in the country’s Western Thrace region, on its border with Turkey. The new law upends a system of maintaining separate legal rules for the region’s 100,000-strong Muslim minority that stretches back nearly a century. In an email interview, Effie Fokas, a senior research fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy and a research associate at the London School of Economics’ Hellenic Observatory, discusses what motivated the government to pass the new law, as well as the broader experiences of religious minorities living in Greece.

WPR: What drove the Greek parliament’s decision to limit the powers of Islamic courts operating in the Western Thrace region?

Effie Fokas: The timing of the bill’s announcement made rather conspicuous the connection to a pending case against Greece before the European Court of Human Rights. On Dec. 6, the court heard the case of Chatitze Molla Sali, a Muslim woman in Western Thrace whose husband’s will bequeathed her his estate. The will, however, was contested by the deceased’s sisters on the grounds that for members of the Muslim community in Western Thrace, Islamic law, according to which two-thirds of the estate would go to the sisters, prevails over Greek civil law in matters of inheritance. Greece’s highest court ruled in the sisters’ favor that Islamic courts had jurisdiction over their inheritance.

Western Thrace exists as an anomaly in Europe given the prevalence of Shariah courts over secular courts on matters related to family law, which is a result of a population exchange between Greece and Turkey after World War I and the terms set out in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. The Greek government has already lost several cases in the European Court of Human Rights related to the authority of Shariah in the region and is keen to avoid further embarrassment over an issue that draws significant negative attention from its European partners.

Read the full interview here.

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Religioni di minoranza tra Europa e laicità locale [Minority religions between Europe and local secularism]

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Alberta Giorgi (forthcoming 2018)

Milano: Mimesis

This book concerns the place of minority religions in Italy, against the scenario of the processes that characterize contemporary societies – secularization, laicization, Europeanization, immigration – and of the tensions that they trigger or bring to light. Does the process of secularization have the same effects for the different religious communities – their internal organization, their ways of understanding and expressing the faith and the religious, how they are dealt with in the public and the political spheres? What is the configuration of secularism, in the sense of separation between religious and political institutions, in the light of the transformations of the contemporary religious?

And what is the impact of the Europeanization process? In particular, how does the redistribution of competences to supra- and sub-national governments impacts on the geometries of secularism? Does Europeanization have a secularizing effect? How the ‘religious’ dimension of immigration is dealt with, from an intersectional point of view?

These are the questions that orient the volume. In particular, specific attention is given to the complex interweaving (local, national and international) of laws, norms, regulations and jurisprudence which constitute the normative scenario of minority religions in Italy.

Drawing mainly on data collected in the framework of the ERC project “Grassrootsmobilise Directions in Religious Pluralism in Europe – Examining Grassroots Mobilisations in the Shadow of European Court of Human Rights Religious Freedom Jurisprudence” the volume is structured in five chapters.

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Journal Special Issue: European Court of Human Rights and minority religions

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Religion, State and Society, 2017, 45 (3-4)

This special issue is devoted to an exploration of a disconnect between messages generated by the ECtHR through its case law and messages received at the grassroots level, in the domain of minority religious claims. Specifically, the contributions in this special issue critically assess some of the Court’s case law dealing with religious minority claims in terms of that case law’s clarity, consistency and controversiality, and they offer insight into the grassroots level impact of the Court’s case law on religious minority claims (and, specifically, claims to do with legal status).

Roughly divided, the first five contributions speak to the former matter, and the last five to the latter. And most derive from papers presented at a conference on Religion and Human Rights at the University of Padova in April 2016, organised within the International Joint PhD programme on ‘Human Rights, Society, and Multilevel Governance’. That conference allowed scholars who were working on various aspects of the work of the ECtHR to meet and interact in various sessions. Out of that interaction came the idea of developing a special issue on the work of the Court. The first five contributions are by scholars who presented independently on different panels at the latter conference, and the second batch of contributions showcase research conducted in the context of the Grassrootsmobilise Research Programme, four of which were presented on a panel on ‘Legal Status of Religious Minorities: Exploring the Impact of the European Court of Human Rights’ at the Padova conference (Fokas’ contribution was drafted subsequently).

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God’s Advocates

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Effie Fokas

eds. Jeroen Temperman and András Koltay, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression: Comparative, Theoretical and Historical Reflections after the Charlie Hebdo Massacre, (2017) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 389-410

‘God’s advocates’ refers to a broad range of actors who individually and together form a support system for the existence and application of the blasphemy laws in Greece. Specifically, their aim is to purge the offences against God, Christianity, the Greek Orthodox Church, and against the religious sentiments of individuals, from the Greek public square. They are assisted in this by certain corners of the political and judicial class. This chapter describes the work of God’s advocates while presenting some of the most important cases in which the blasphemy laws have been applied in a number of fronts of Greek social and cultural life. The text then examines the subsequent political (and notably not legal) mobilization of activists and artists working both at the national and international level towards the abolishment of these laws.  Navigating between a highly active effort from amongst the ranks of the Orthodox Church and the multilevel forces in the campaign against the laws, the chapter brings to life the current volatile battle in the Greek political scene over the decriminalization of blasphemy, and offers insight into the indeterminateness of that battle’s outcome.

Available here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/blasphemy-and-freedom-of-expression/gods-advocates/0A14DD8D2BF4EE8FBED6D640BA83E45B

 

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Kokkinakis at the Grassroots Level

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Effie Fokas

Religion & Human Rights, 2017, 12(2-3), 210-222

This contribution considers the impact of Kokkinakis at the grassroots level: to what extent do grassroots level actors know about the case of Kokkinakis and see in it an opportunity to further their own religion-related rights claims? To what extent has the case inspired social actors such as rights activists, cause lawyers or faith group members to mobilise for their own religion-related rights, whether in court, in the halls of government, or in the streets? Has Kokkinakis left a mark on the individual citizen with concerns to do with religious freedoms? These questions are addressed through empirical research conducted on the indirect effects of ECtHR religion-related case law, including Kokkinakis, at the grassroots level in Greece.

Download: Fokas – Religion & Human Rights 2017

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European Religious Freedoms Norms as a Challenge to Orthodox Churches

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Effie Fokas

eds. Kristina Stoeckl, Ingeborg Gabriel and Aristotle Papanikolaou, Political Theologies in Orthodox Christianity: Common Challenges – Divergent Positions, (2017) New York: Bloomsbury, 75-96

The emerging European institutional framework for religious freedom forms an important aspect of the political and societal context in which Orthodox Churches must function – regardless of the extent to which the latter are aware of this or accepting of this fact. Though this institutional framework engages states directly and less so churches, because of the close links between the two in majority Orthodox countries, the potential impact for churches is extensive. This contribution explores the European institutional framework for religious freedom, based on particular articles of the European Convention on Human Rights as well as on specific cases in the religious freedom jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and examines the extent to which both the latter impact upon Orthodox churches in any distinct sense.

Available here: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/political-theologies-in-orthodox-christianity-9780567674128/

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