European Supranational Courts and the Fundamental Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief: Convergence or Competition?

Since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009, human rights in Europe is a matter for two supranational courts. As a new actor in the area of human rights protection in Europe, the European Union entered a multilevel European human rights architecture, which was characterized by an inherent interplay between the state level and the supranational level of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The jurisprudence of the ECtHR on Article 9 is well established, though much critiqued, and a number of scholars anticipate more progressive ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The approach the CJEU will take in the pending Achbita and Bougnaoui cases may be revealing and a prelude to developments to come in a vaster area related to law and religion in Europe. This article introduces five contributions, published in Volume 5 issues 2 and 3 of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, as part of a thematic series on the impact of the multilevel European human rights architecture on the protection of the fundamental right to freedom of religion and non-discrimination.