Ateneo - UPO

The course proposes a critical examination of the main legal issues related to the regulation of the religious phenomenon in European societies. Starting from an introduction regarding the merit and method of European ecclesiastical law, the following topics will be developed: the legal sources of European ecclesiastical law; the principles of European ecclesiastical law; the legal categories of European ecclesiastical law; the prospectives and challenges of European law and religion.

FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS: Doctrinal and jurisprudential material provided to participants on the individual topics covered during the course and progressively inserted for each lesson block on the DIR platform.
FOR NON ATTENDING STUDENTS: Pierluigi Consorti, Diritto e religione. Basi e prospettive, Editore-Laterza, 2023, pp. 408.

Knowledge of the main problems existing in multi-religious societies in order to: • Educate the new generations to a more mature citizenship (civic education); • Greater critical sensitivity and skills on issues of racism, discrimination for ethnic, religious or gender or sexual orientation reasons; • Multilevel knowledge of European ecclesiastical law with regard to both sources and jurisprudence; • Knowledge of both national and international jurisprudence (ECtHR) on religious freedom and antidiscrimination; • Knowledge to deal with the intersubjective dynamics connected to multicultural processes; • Culturally prepare future PA executives in facing the challenges of plural societies. The course pursues, in its entirety, two main educational objectives indicated within the Sustainable Development Goals elaborated by the United Nations: Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Knowledge of constitutional law and private law is recommended. In the first case is knowledge of the first part of the Constitution concerning the fundamental principles. About the private law such as: juridical person; contract; property and other civil law institutions.

Classes are organized via lectures and classroom exercises regarding the examination and discussion of judgments. There is an obligation to attend at least 2/3 of the lessons in order to acquire the status of a student and benefit from the specific examination program.

The course will be supported by multimedia tools (DVD, Youtube) and will use the expertise of external teachers on-site or via Skype. Some lessons could take place in French or English. Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti, consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/servicesstudents-physical-or-learning-disabilities Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, can refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination modalities, concerning academic aspects.

Oral examination

The course program will be composed and structured as follows: Lessons
1-2: INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE (a. Organization and structure of the course; b. The merit of the course: historical genesis and development of European ecclesiastical law; c. The method of European ecclesiastical law; d. The actors of European ecclesiastical law);
Lessons 3-4:
THE SOURCES OF EUROPEAN ECCLESIASTICAL LAW (a. International, European and national sources; b. Unilateral sources and bilateral sources; c. Religious rights and secular rights; d. Human rights and religious freedom);
Lessons 5-6:
THE PRINCIPLES OF EUROPEAN ECCLESIASTICAL LAW (a. Equality; b. Nondiscrimination;
c. Secularism);
Lessons 7-8:
THE LEGAL CATEGORIES OF EUROPEAN ECCLESIASTICAL LAW (a.
Religious minorities; Migrants and religious refugees);
Lessons 9-10:
THE CHALLENGES OF EUROPEAN ECCLESIASTICAL LAW: GENDER AND
SEXUAL ORIENTATION (a. Freedom of sexual orientation and religious freedom; b. Gender equality in religious communities; c. The Islamic headscarf in the workplace: an intersectional approach);
Lessons 11-12:
THE PATHS OF EUROPEAN ECCLESIASTICAL LAW (a. Confessional autonomy in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights; b. The concept of democratic society in Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights; c. The religious public order).
Integration of the gender dimension
All topics will be explored also in a gender perspective. From this point of view, gender studies, with specific references to the reflexion of Kimberlé Crenshaw and Judith Butler, will be integrated into the teaching methodology starting from the first lessons, to then be applied to specific themes such as: religious symbols (Islamic veil); the link between gender roles and religions within religious freedom; intersectional discrimination and persecution against women and LGBTQIA+ people; the relationship between religious rights and secular rights concerning the regulation of sexuality, with specific references to marriage and the concept of family; the theological pluralism (feminist theologies; queer theologies) in the prism of religious freedom.

Expected results can be divided into three distinct categories: 1) Results in terms of technical and legal knowledge: knowledge of the main legal sources; knowledge of the legal principles relating to the topics; knowledge of legal sources and institutions on national and international level; 2) Results on the level of civic education: maturation of a more critical social conscience on the issues of diversity, fight against discrimination and respect for human rights and gender equality; 3) Results on the full transversal competences: expository capacity in the classroom; properties of legal language; ability to resolve legal problematic issues; ability to approach concrete cases.