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:

Symposium: Religion and Education in the Shadow of the European Court of Human Rights, Politics and Religion, 2019, Vol. 12, Supplement S1:

 

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

‘The Geopolitics of Transnational Law and Religion’, in eds. Susanna Mancini and Michel Rosenfeld, The Conscience Wars: Rethinking the balance between Religion, Identity and Equality, Cambridge University press, 2018, pp. 258-274 – Pasquale Annicchino

‘Pluralism and Religious Freedom. Insights from Orthodox Europe’, in eds. Elisabeth A. Diamantopoulou and Louis-Leon Christians, Orthodox Christianity and Human Rights in Europe: A Dialogue Between Theological Paradigms and Socio-Legal Pragmatics, Peter Lang, 2018 – 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, 2018, pp. 135-155 – Effie Fokas

‘Implementation and Impact of Strasbourg Court Rulings: The Case of Religious Minorities and Their Convention Freedoms’, in eds.  Jeroen Temperman, T. Jeremy Gunn and Malcolm D. Evans, The European Court of Human Rights and the Freedom of Religion or Belief: The 25 Years since Kokkinakis, Brill, 2019, pp. 388-418 – Dia Anagnostou

‘Grassroots Level Awareness about Religion at the European Court of Human Rights’, in eds. Jeroen Temperman, T. Jeremy Gunn and Malcolm D. Evans, The European Court of Human Rights and the Freedom of Religion or Belief: The 25 Years since Kokkinakis,  Brill, 2019, pp. 419-440- Effie Fokas

‘Religion and Human Rights in Greece’, in eds. Giuseppe Giordan and Siniša Zrinščak, Global Eastern Orthodoxy: Politics, Religion, and Human Rights, forthcoming 2019 – Effie Fokas

‘In the shadow of the ‘prevailing’ religion: religious communities and civil society in Greece’, Religious Communities and Civil Society in Europe: Analyses and Perspectives on a Complex Interplay, Volume 1, ed. Rupert Graf Strachwitz, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, forthcoming July 2019 – Margarita Markoviti

 

BOOKS

The European Court of Human Rights and minority religions: messages generated and messages received, eds. Effie Fokas and James T. Richardson, (2018) Abingdon: Routledge:

– 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], (2018) Milan: Mimesis

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

The European Court of Human Rights on the Ground: Grassroots Level Impact of Religious Freedoms Jurisprudence, ed. Effie Fokas (forthcoming 2019):

  • ‘Introduction’ – Effie Fokas
  • ‘“Multi-Speed Religions”: The ECtHR and the Limits of Legal Recognition of Religious Minorities in Greece’ – Margarita Markoviti
  • ‘The strategic action of religious minorities in Italy’ – Pasquale Annicchino and Alberta Giorgi
  • ‘The interest of religious actors in the ECtHR in the Romanian context’ – Mihai Popa
  • ‘Legal Mobilization among Turkey’s religious minorities and belief groups’ – Ceren Ozgul
  • ‘The role of Jehovah’s Witnesses case law in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights’ – James T. Richardson and Mihai Popa
  • ‘The modest and variable recourse of Europe’s ‘old’ and ‘new’ Muslims to human rights litigation’ – Dia Anagnostou
  • ‘Pursuing freedom from religion: Atheists, secularists, and humanists’ activism before the ECtHR’ – Effie Fokas and Julie Ringelheim
  • ‘Conclusion: Tracing the radiating effects of the ECtHR religion-related jurisprudence’ – Effie Fokas

 

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

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

‘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

‘Local Secularisms in Italy‘, Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network (NSRN) blog post, 10 May 2019 – Alberta Giorgi

 

Read more →

Implementation and Impact of Strasbourg Court Rulings: The Case of Religious Minorities and Their Convention Freedoms

Published under Publications

Dia Anagnostou

in eds. Jeroen Temperman, T. Jeremy Gunn and Malcolm D. Evans, The European Court of Human Rights and the Freedom of Religion or Belief: The 25 Years since Kokkinakis, Brill, 2019, pp. 388-418

In the developing case law of the European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’, or ECtHR) related to religious freedom over the past twenty-five years, the rights of adherents of minority religions occupy a prominent place. While legal scholars have explored the evolving human rights jurisprudence in this area, we still know far less as to whether national authorities actually redress the substantial number of rights violations that the Court has found in relation to religious minorities. In filling this gap, this chapter explores the measures and reforms that states undertake in complying with the ECtHR judgments related to the rights of religious minorities in five countries: Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia and Romania. Do state authorities in these countries implement the relevant ECtHR judgments that find national law and practice to be at odds with human rights principles, and do the adopted measures enhance the religious freedom of minorities? Do they give full effect to the judgments, or do they only partially or superficially do so? Besides exploring the general measures that these national authorities implement, this study also comparatively analyses the factors that account for variations in state compliance with ECtHR judgments related to the religious freedom of minorities. The chapter argues that implementation of ECtHR rulings to redress violations of religious freedom can expand the rights of religious minorities to practice their faith, only under the condition that there is sufficient support by a “domestic compliance coalition” that can pressure the government to undertake legal and policy reform in this area.

Available here.

Read more →

Grassroots Level Awareness about Religion at the European Court of Human Rights

Published under Publications

Effie Fokas

in eds. Jeroen Temperman, T. Jeremy Gunn and Malcolm D. Evans, The European Court of Human Rights and the Freedom of Religion or Belief: The 25 Years since Kokkinakis, Brill, 2019, pp. 419-440

This chapter draws on research designed to bring the influence on religious pluralism of the European Court of Human Rights into sharp focus, but from the ground up: we have access to information about the direct effect of the Court in terms of implementation, or not, of its decisions via policy change enacted by national governments, but we have little insight into the indirect effects of the Court, in terms of whether and the extent to which the Court’s case law mobilises grassroots level actors in pursuit of their rights. A study of the indirect effects of case law includes attention to the many ways its decisions are deployed by social actors in their rights campaigns, and in many venues outside of courts.  The broader research from which the present chapter emanates focuses not on the gap between the promise of certain court decisions and actual social change but rather on the gap between such decisions and the change in societal expectations: to what extent do court decisions lead to a shift in social actors’ conceptions of their rights, in their discourse about those rights, and in their propensity to pursue those rights, whether through legal or political means? Answers to this question presuppose a far more basic one: how aware of the Court and its religion-related case law are social actors at the grassroots level? European institutions are notoriously exposed to criticism as non-transparent and distant from the citizen. This is no less the case for the ECtHR. To what extent does knowledge about the Court’s decisions related to religion trickle down to grassroots actors with a vested interest in these decisions, and to what effects?

Available here.

Read more →

Local Secularisms in Italy

Published under Publications

Blog post by Alberta Giorgi, Researcher for GRASSROOTSMOBILISE, on the different “local secularisms” that have taken shape in Italy that are often built directly in relation to Italy’s Catholic culture and state politics, for the blog of the Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network (NSRN), May 10, 2019.

Italy is well-known to be a Catholic country, and this public identity has heavily influenced the cultures of secularity that developed in the country, as well as the forms of nonreligion that have taken shape.

Considering the data, “nonreligiosity” is steadily growing in Italy, while Catholic religiosity is decreasing. According to the Pew Research Center, for example, nonbelievers are 21% of the Italian population. The data are consistent with local survey findings that show a steady growth in the rates of nonreligiosity — in 2008, nonreligious people (nones) accounted for 11% of the population. With the exception of a small percentage of “other affiliations” (3%), the rest of the population positions itself in a continuum ranging between “committed catholic” to “cultural Catholic” (born into the Catholic religion and respectful, but seldom practitioners)[1]. Studies have focused on the role of the process of secularization and the decreasing rate of female religiosity, which has impacted the intergenerational transmission of faith, making it more unlikely to be born into the Catholic tradition. Taken together, nonreligious people are both those leaving Catholic religion, as well as those who leave other religions, and, increasingly, those who grew up in nonreligious families. However, this is only part of the story.

Read the full post here.

Read more →

Symposium: Religion and Education in the Shadow of the European Court of Human Rights

Published under Publications

Politics and Religion, 2019, Vol. 12, Supplement S1

A symposium on the “indirect effects” of the European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence on the place of religion in the educational sphere. The symposium showcases empirical research providing critical insight into how the Court’s decisions may influence related domestic debates, raise public consciousness, and change how social actors perceive their rights and articulate their right claims in the area of religion and education. The research underpinning this symposium represents a clear departure from existing scholarship in this domain: it examines the impact of the Court not from the top-down (Court impact on states and their legislative frameworks) but from grassroots level upwards, in seeking to understand whether, how and to what extent Court decisions influence grassroots level actors’ conceptions of their rights in the domain of religion and education and their efforts to secure new rights vis-à-vis their states.

Read more →

Minority religions between Europe and local secularism

Published under Publications

Alberta Giorgi

Religioni di minoranza tra Europa e laicità locale, (2018) Milan: 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 on 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 is the ‘religious’ dimension of immigration 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.

Available here.

Read more →

The European Court of Human Rights and Minority Religions: Messages Generated and Messages Received

Published under Publications

eds. Effie Fokas and James T. Richardson, (2018) Abingdon: Routledge

This book includes a collection of studies focused on engagements of religious minorities with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Beginning with an introduction of the global importance of the ECtHR as a standard setter in the protection of religious minority rights, the subsequent five chapters entail critical assessments of some of the Court’s case law dealing with religious minority claims (exploring their clarity and consistency – or lack thereof – and controversiality). In the process these texts impart a nuanced perspective on the challenges the Court faces in striking the right balance between protecting individual freedoms and respecting state rights to manage ‘nationally’ and ‘culturally’ sensitive matters. The second set of contributions makes readers privy to the varied results of this balancing act on the ground. Specifically, it offers empirically-based insight into the impact of the Court’s religion-related case law on grassroots religious minority groups working to defend their individual and communal rights. The chapters taken together deepen our understanding of the ECtHR in its approach to and impact on religious minorities and offer a rare vantage point on the Court, from the messages its generates to the messages received by religious minorities at the grassroots level.

The chapters in this book were originally published in Religion, State & Society, the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs and Democratization.

Available here.

Read more →

Religious American and Secular European Courts? A study of institutional cross-pollination

Published under Publications

Effie Fokas

in ed. Titus Hjelm, Peter L. Berger and the Sociology of Religion: 50 Years after The Sacred Canopy, (2018) London: Bloomsbury Academic, 135-155

In his 2005 National Interest article on ‘Religion and the West’, Peter Berger suggested that one of the variables distinguishing between a religious America and a secular Europe is the function of certain institutions, such as the educational system, political parties and labor unions. In Religious America, Secular Europe?, we explored, amongst these, the role of the judiciary and, specifically, the critical differences between the United States Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights. The present article explores a phenomenon which has developed especially in the period since the publication of that book: namely, the cross-pollination of the two courts achieved by religiously motivated legal actors seeking to influence the handling of certain religion-related matters by the ‘other’ court. The article is based on empirical research conducted with a number of such engaged US and Europe-based legal actors.

Available here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/peter-l-berger-and-the-sociology-of-religion-9781350061897/

Read more →

Pluralism and Religious Freedom. Insights from Orthodox Europe

Published under Publications

Effie Fokas

in eds. Elisabeth A. Diamantopoulou and Louis-Leon Christians, Orthodox Christianity and Human Rights in Europe: A Dialogue Between Theological Paradigms and Socio-Legal Pragmatics, (2018) Oxford: Peter Lang

A snapshot of European societies today reveals the importance of religious minority treatment and the grave potential that the latter can carry for instability and even social unrest in a situation of rapidly increasing religious diversity. The Pew Forum’s influential study on the ‘Rising tide of restrictions on religion’ highlighted the problem on a global scale. Most conspicuous are the reactions of Muslim groups against what they perceive to be intolerant majorities, but other (less attended by the mass media) religious minority experiences are no less compelling evidence of tensions around religious pluralism in localities across Europe. Registration restrictions, curtailed rights to expressions of faith, and exclusion from mass media are amongst several limitations on religious freedom experienced by religious minorities in Europe.

Such limitations of religious freedoms are particularly prominent in countries where Orthodox Christianity is the majority faith. Indicatively, majority Orthodox states are accountable for 63% of all European Court of Human Rights convictions for religious freedoms violations. What is the reason behind this state of affairs? Is there something intrinsic to Orthodoxy as a religious and social institution that makes it intolerant towards minorities? Or are there historical and political particularities in individual Orthodox majority countries that underlie the barriers to religious freedoms in each case?

This chapter draws on empirical research conducted in four majority Orthodox countries with the explicit aim of addressing such questions. Specifically, the text reflects research conducted by the author in Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and Greece, in response to two particular realities: first, the aforementioned prominence of limitations to religious freedoms in majority Orthodox contexts, and second, a body of social science literature questioning the relationship between Orthodoxy and pluralism.

Available here: https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/61649

Read more →

The Geopolitics of Transnational Law and Religion

Published under Publications

Pasquale Annicchino

in eds. Susanna Mancini and Michel Rosenfeld, The Conscience Wars: Rethinking the balance between Religion, Identity and Equality, (2018) Cambridge University Press, pp.258-274.

The aim of this contribution is to contextualize the current wars of conscience within the global scenario of culture wars through the frame of legal narrative and geopolitical imagery, in which religious factors and variables play a significant role. Legal orders and conscience-related conflicts are therefore understood in the context of a constantly shifting and fragmenting international legal regime.

Available here.

Read more →