Il caso Folgero contro Norvegia. Libertà religiosa, pluralismo educativo e margine di apprezzamento statale

The paper examines the case Folgerø against Norway of the European Court of Human Rights in the context of the European pronunciations, which are employed to protect the right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their religious convictions and the prohibition of indoctrination by the State. These rights - enshrined in art. 2 of the Additional Protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights - should be read in conjunction with the first sentence of that article, which states in general the right to education, and with Articles 8, 9 and 10 of the Convention. The article critically examines the two problematic issues considered by the Strasbourg jurisprudence. The first issue concerns the difficult balance between the power of control of the European Court to the effective safeguarding of religious pluralism in education, and State autonomy in defining the content of the curriculum and how to implement it. These aspects are often influenced by the system of State / Church relations existing in a given country. The second issue concerns the argumentative process and criteria used by the Court to verify compliance with standards of educational pluralism and neutrality of education imposed on states by the settled judicial interpretation of the second sentence of Article 2 P1. The article argues that in the Folgerø case, the Court seems to have introduced a new limit, even in education, to consequences that the presence of an 'official religion' can determine on the organization of the school curriculum. The Court narrows the margin of appreciation of Norway and gives precedence to the European interpretation of the concepts of pluralism, objectivity and neutrality of the State.