Religion in the EU legal order: the pluralistic model and the case-law of the Court of Justice

This contribution deals with the issue of religion under EU law. First, it shows that a number of provisions of the EU Treaties and of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU postulate a pluralistic model, characterized by the recognition of everyone’s freedom of religion or belief and by the related prohibition of any discrimination based on such personal choices. Then, it turns to the recent case-law of the Court of Justice on religious freedom and discrimination on religious grounds, and in particular to the cases concerning the prohibition on wearing religious clothing in the workplace and the cases concerning ritual slaughter. The analysis of this case-law points out that it is not fully consistent with the pluralism favoured by the normative provisions.