Headscarves and the Court of Justice of the European Union - An Analysis of the Case Law

This book contains an in-depth examination of the Islamic headscarf cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and places these against the background of the Islamophobia existing across Europe. It assesses how EU law can best protect women who want to wear headscarves at work for religious reasons and why this protection is important not only for the women themselves but also for the EU, taking into account its values as laid down in the Treaties, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and in the anti-discrimination Directives. It puts forward arguments for a finding that workplace neutrality bans constitute direct religion or belief discrimination and examines the way that the justification test for indirect discrimination has been applied by the CJEU. The work suggests that such bans could be more successfully challenged as gender and/or racial or ethnic origin discrimination, because the protection against these forms of discrimination is stronger. It also suggests that a claim for intersectional discrimination - on the grounds of gender, racial and ethnic origin, and religion or belief - should be possible in EU anti-discrimination law. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of equality and non-discrimination law, EU law and law and religion.

List of contents

1. General and Legal Background; 2 . Achbita and Bougnaoui; 3. Wabe and Müller, LF v. SCRL and OP v. Commune d'Ans; 4. Direct and Indirect discrimination; 5. Justification; 6. Gender and racial and ethnic origin discrimination; 7. Multiple discrimination; 8. Conclusion;

About the author

Erica Howard is Professor of Law, Middlesex University, UK

Summary

This book examines the Islamic headscarf cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union and places these in context of the Islamophobia existing across Europe. It assesses how EU law can best protect women who want to wear headscarves at work for religious reasons and why this protection is important not only for the women but also for the EU.

Product details

• Authors: Erica Howard, Erica (Middlesex University Howard, Howard Erica
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 20.12.2023
• EAN: 9781032426990
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3242699-0
• No. of pages: 186
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Other religions; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works; Social sciences, law, business > Law > International law, foreign law; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, RELIGION / Islam / Rituals & Practice, Human rights & civil liberties law, LAW / Civil Rights, LAW / Annotations & Citations, Case Law, EU (European Union), Law: Human rights and civil liberties, Islamic Life & Practice, Relating to Islamic / Muslim people and groups, Law & society, Islamic life and practice, Law and society, sociology of law, Sources of law: case law, precedent