IELWorkingPaper2016No3-_The_humanity_of_the_secular_subject.pdf (671.38 kB)
The ‘humanity’ of the secular legal subject’: reading the European Court of Human Rights’ decisions over the practice of veiling
The debate over the Muslim headscarf has become an arena of fervent discussion in Europe. Much of the debate reveals an attempt to explain the issue in binary terms, between modern, ‘secular’, universal and ‘religious’, traditional, local values. In this context, the hijab has become the symbol and mirror of the so called ‘clash of civilisations’. Through the analysis of two cases sentenced by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), my argument is that the passionate debate over the veil is a false one as the hijab emerges as a visible symbol of a clash between two legal-political systems, similar but contingently dissimilar: in fact, both Islamists and liberals aim at establishing a singular, universal (positivized) law within the same territory through women’s body. Thus, what the analysis of the ‘hijab cases’ reveals, is not only the emergence of a specific fixed and monolithic Christian/secular/liberal law’s subject, but also that the universality of western thought has precluded the possibility of imagining different forms of humanities and, along with it, a legal pluralism able to deal with a new multi-religious Europe.
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- Published
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- Published version
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Birmingham Law School - Institute of European LawPage range
1-20Pages
20.0Event name
More or Less EuropeEvent location
University of Birmingham- Institute of European LawEvent type
conferenceEvent date
March 2016Department affiliated with
- Law Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Sussex Centre for Human Rights Research Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- No
Legacy Posted Date
2017-11-20First Open Access (FOA) Date
2017-11-20First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2017-11-20Usage metrics
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