Paper's abstract

Anne Debet, Religious signs and European jurisprudence
The vote of the law of 15 March 2004 controlling the right to wear religious signs at school gave rise to an heated debate on the issue of the compatibility of French law with the European Convention on Human Rights. This issue is not restricted to school and must be extended to the problems rising from the religious practices of civil servants. The article 9 of the Convention protects religious freedom and the European Court has already had the opportunity to rule on matters of religious signs wearing. Now, it leaves, in these matters, a very wide margin to the State, margin justified by the complexity of the issue at stake. It is therefore difficult to assert definitely the conformity or non-conformity of French law with the convention. However one may single out two lessons from this study. On the one hand, the case of civil servants is more intricate than that of pupils. On the other hand, measures restricting religious freedom must always be appraised by verify the necessity of such measures regarding the sought after legitimate goals.


Key Words : reigious signs
t. 48, 2004 : p. 221-247

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