A two-day comparative and interdisciplinary conference on Religious Freedom and Education in Europe was held in Oxford on 8 and 9 October 2010. The conference was organised under the auspices of the Institute of Global Law, University College London (Dr Myriam Hunter-Henin, co-director) and the Maison Française d'Oxford (Prof Luc Borot, director) and received the support of the Institute for Human Rights and the Faculty of Laws (UCL), Grand Challenges (UCL), the Maison Française d'Oxford, the French Embassy in Britain and numerous Research Institutes.
The comparative and multidisciplinary perspective adopted shed new light on the delicate articulation of law and religion in the sphere of education and on the contours of religious freedoms. The field of education revealed itself to be a particularly fruitful terrain for analysis of law and religion issues, as illustrated by recent controversial case law (Lautsi, JFS etc). It is at school that relationships between state and religion will be tested most acutely: where but at school should pupils enjoy a sphere of neutrality devoid of any religious signs? Would a separatist model, based on the concept of laïcité, achieve that objective? But where if not at school should pupils be exposed to the diversity of religions and learn to tolerate and respect different faiths? How does either model justify the involvement of the State in faith schools? It is also in the context of education that parents' and pupils' rights to autonomy may come into conflict with the general interest of ensuring a proper education for all. Should there be a single syllabus? Should religious diversity serve as justification for derogations to the national curriculum or even as a basis for a completely different model of home schooling? Should pupils from religious minorities thus be allowed to opt out of religious education? Much further down the line, should creationist theories be taught in lieu of Darwin's teachings?
Leading academics, barristers specialised in the field, representatives of religious and secular organisations and educationalists tackled these delicate and fascinating questions and contributed to the richness of the papers and ensuing debates. The presentations were divided into three parts: first, an analysis and discussion of the key concepts of laïcité, discrimination and religious freedom (Prof Luc Borot, Dr Lorenzo Zucca (King's College London), Prof Gwénaell Calvès (Université Cergy-Pontoise), Dr Sylvie Langlaude (Queen's University Belfast) and secondly, a presentation and discussion of national models of church-state relations in the school context (Dr Blandine Chelini-Pont (Université Aix-en-Provence), Dr Kerem Altiparmak (Ankara University), Prof Christopher McCrudden (Lincoln College, Oxford), Prof Norman Doe (Cardiff Law School), Prof Heinrich de Wall (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen), Dr Javier Oliva (University of Bangor), Prof Marco Ventura (University of Siena)). Lastly, these two general sessions were followed by case studies targeting topical and controversial issues raised in various European jurisdictions under three different headings: defining religious beliefs (Prof Lucy Vickers (Oxford Brooks University), Prof Martine Cohen (CNRS Paris), Dr Arif Jamal (National University of Singapore) and Dr Farid Panjwani (The Aga Khan University, London), Prof Maleiha Malik (King's College London)); defining teaching content (Peter Cumper (University of Leicester), Dr Alison Mawhinney and Dr Yuko Chiba (Queen's University Belfast), Jean-Marie Woehrling (Strasbourg, Institut du Droit Local Alsacien-Mosellan), Prof Eric Barendt (UCL), Frank Cranmer (Cardiff Law School), Anna van den Kerchove (IESR, Paris)); and religious symbols (Dr George Letsas (UCL), Dr Tobias Lock (UCL), Prof Mark Hill QC (Cardiff Law School), Dr Russell Sandberg (Cardiff Law School), Prof Raphaël Liogier (Sciences Po, Aix-en-Provence)).
The papers from the conference will be published in a book, Religious Freedom and Education in Europe, edited by Myriam Hunter-Henin, in Ashgate's Cultural Diversity and the Law Series in 2011.
