Secularism before the Strasbourg Court: Abstract Constitutional Principles as a Basis for Limiting Rights

The justification for the restrictions on religion inherent in secularism is the subject of lively debate in constitutional and political theory. In Ebrahimian v France the Strasbourg Court was required to assess whether the European Convention on Human Rights can accommodate a secularism whose aims and justifications go beyond the protection of the rights of others and include abstract goals such as upholding the religious neutrality of the state. The resulting judgment highlights both the inability of rights to provide an adequate account of the relationship between religion and the state and how the text of the Convention struggles to give adequate weight to constitutional principles whose justification arises from sources other than the protection of fundamental rights. I suggest that the Court was correct to reaffirm its stance that secularism and strict neutrality can be in harmony with the values of the Convention. However, it needs to be more clear about the reasons for this stance and to be vigilant in its protection of private autonomy so that the use of abstract principles to restrict religious expression does not give excessive latitude to states to restrict individual autonomy and minority right

La religion, la loi et l'Etat dans l'Europe contemporaine: perspective comparative des principaux dilemmes

Cet article traite des principaux éléments de la réglementation des liens entre la religion, le droit et l’État en Europe. Il analyse les principaux défis auxquels ces réglementations sont confrontées, et notamment la façon dont l’immigration et la diversité religieuse posent problème aux modèles existants. Enfin, l’article esquisse une comparaison entre les approches européennes et américaines, afin d’évaluer si les États-Unis peuvent constituer une source d’inspiration aussi bien pour les États que pour les institutions pan européennes

Agro-environmental project duration and effectiveness in South-east Asia

Considerable emphasis has been placed on developing technologies for agricultural sustainability. Many bilateral projects are working to achieve this outcome. A desk review was conducted to study the importance of project duration for the effectiveness of sustainable agricultural projects. Longer-duration projects were successful in addressing more holistic issues than short projects. However, funding agencies tend to fund shorter-duration projects, so projects become progressively shorter. At the same time, the number of projects implemented each year is increasing. Despite the decrease in total development assistance, increases in project numbers, particularly since 1986, appear to be at the cost of project duration. Short project duration was one of the most cited reasons for not completing essential dissemination activities for wider adoption, whereas longer- duration projects were usually considered more successful in addressing more holistic issues. It is difficult to produce tangible outputs from agricultural and soil conservation projects within five years. Considering the slow changes in the system and in agricultural and environmental sustainability, the authors suggest that project developers should be advised to plan for a minimum of 5–10 years, depending on the nature of activities. It is time for funding agencies to reconsider their tendency to fund shorter-duration projects

Autonomic Computing Correlation for Fault Management System Evolution

This paper discusses the emerging area of autonomic computing and its implications for the evolution of faultmanagement systems. Particular emphasis is placed on the concept of event correlation and its role in system self-management. A new correlation analysis tool to assist with the development, management and maintenance of correlation rules and beliefs is described

A Snapshot of J. L. Synge

A brief description is given of the life and influence on relativity theory of Professor J. L. Synge accompanied by some technical examples to illustrate his style of work

A cosmological model in Weyl-Cartan spacetime

We present a cosmological model for early stages of the universe on the basis of a Weyl-Cartan spacetime. In this model, torsion $T^{\alpha}$ and nonmetricity $Q_{\alpha \beta}$ are proportional to the vacuum polarization. Extending earlier work of one of us (RT), we discuss the behavior of the cosmic scale factor and the Weyl 1-form in detail. We show how our model fits into the more general framework of metric-affine gravity (MAG).Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, typos corrected, uses IOP style fil

Rights as a basis for the religious neutrality of the state: Lessons from Europe for American defenders of non-establishment

This article compares elements of the approach of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the US Supreme Court (USSC) to the issue of the separation of religion and state. It shows how the European experience of such issues can help to demonstrate which are the more compelling, and the less compelling justifications for such separation. It argues that a comparison between key decisions of the ECtHR and the USSC reveals rights-based justifications for strict separation of religion and state to be relatively weak. It argues that rights-based separation will not rule out non-oppressive forms of establishment of religion and place pressure on courts to enter into risky assessments of the compatibility of teachings of particular faiths with fundamental rights. This casts doubt on the theories advanced by several influential proponents of a maximalist reading of the separationist requirements of the First Amendment as well as explaining some of the problematic elements of Strasbourg jurisprudence such as the tendency of the Court to make pronouncements on the compatibility of Islam with human rights norms

Why the role of religious tribunals in the legal system should not be expanded

Evaluates arguments supporting an expanded role for religious courts and tribunals within the secular legal system, including that: (1) the denial of religious jurisdiction over civil law matters forces litigants to choose between their legal rights and religious identities; (2) secular court supervision can protect women and sexual minorities from oppressive decisions; and (3) the secular legal order can influence change in the religious law