Lautsi: Introduction

Increasingly, debates about religious symbols in the public square are reformulated as human rights questions and put before national and international judges. Particularly in the area of education, legitimate interests are manifold and often collide. Children’s educational and religious rights, so-called ‘parental liberties’ vis-à-vis one’s children, the state’s state (positive and negative) obligations in the area of public school education, reverence for longstanding religious traditions, the state neutrality principle in all its different interpretations and manifestations, and the professional rights and duties of teachers are each principles and values that may warrant priority treatment. This paper briefly introduces the Lautsi case and embeds it within legal and other scholarship.

• View at SSRN