The legal framework for religious education in Norway - towards a Kantian balance between rights of state and rights of the citizen

Politicisation of education has for the last decade been a topic in the international debate on religious education (RE). Concerns have been raised about the legitimacy of politicisation of both confessional and non-confessional variants of RE. The Norwegian subject has gained special attention internationally due to the censure by the UN's HRC and the verdict from the ECtHR. The aim of this article is to assess the legitimacy of the legal framework for RE in Norway, based on the presumption that positive law should be consistent with universal right. I will do this from the perspective of Kant's doctrine of right which has a basic normative structure established independent of any material values, making it especially suited for the challenge to promote and preserve a shared political identity in societies with growing cultural and religious diversity. The main question of this article is whether and to what extent changes of the Norwegian legal framework for RE have strengthened its legitimacy from a Kantian perspective. I will argue that the current framework aligns with the practical implications of Kant's theory, concluding that the Norwegian case exemplifies a legitimate politicisation of RE in a pluralistic society within the limits of a liberal democracy.