This book investigates the role of Islam and religious freedom in the constitutional transitions of six North African and Middle Eastern countries, namely Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, and Palestine. In particular, the book, with an interdisciplinary approach, investigates the role of Islam as a political, institutional and societal force. Issues covered include: the role played by Islam as a constitutional reference a "static force" able to strengthen and legitimize the entire constitutional order; Islam as a political reference used by some political parties in their struggle to...

In recent years, the wearing of the full-face veil or burqa/niqab has proved a controversial issue in many multi-cultural European societies. Focussing on the socio-legal and human rights angle, this volume provides a useful comparative perspective on how the issue has been dealt with across a range of European states as well as at European institutional level. In so doing, the work draws a theoretical framework for the place of religion between public and private space. With contributions from leading experts from law, sociology and politics, the book presents a comparative and...

Italy, seat of the Pope and Vatican City, has a long and difficult relationship with religious freedom. Often identified as a Catholic nation par excellence, Italy owes its unification to a political class that advocated the separation of Church and State. Home of the Concordat, contemporary Italy recognises a peculiar notion of legal secularism (laicità) as the supreme principle of its constitutional order. Through the glasses of law, tracing the history of the right to religious freedom from the Unification to the present day, the nine chapters of the book allow an insight on paradoxes and...