Religious Freedom and Freedom of Speech
Freedom of religious belief and exercise for both individuals and institutions has been foundational to every free government in the Western legal tradition. While religious freedom shines as a guiding principle in the European and American legal orders, the Western world has in recent years become a legal battleground over certain aspects of religious freedom. The debate over the meaning and scope of religious freedom has attracted academics, litigators, judges, and legislators, many of whom seek to advance conflicting visions of religious liberty. Within the European context, the Centre for Law and Religious Freedom has been established as an academic centre within Jagiellonian University. The Centre’s mission is to study and protect the free expression of all faiths. Pluralism and methodological rigor will permeate the Centre’s study of comparative approaches to religious freedom, drawing on the experience and best traditions of various Western legal orders.
This activity will be rooted in a historically informed understanding of the freedoms of religion and speech. Indeed, the history and tradition of Western law has been marked by religious speakers who, acting on conscience, opened the way to speech protections for all. But freedom of speech and freedom of religion remain two distinct freedoms. Freedom of speech is broad, covering a wide variety of human activity, but focused on external expression. By contrast, freedom of religion is both narrower and more profound because it protects both our internal life—what has been called the forum internum—and its external expression in word and deed. In the Centre’s research and clinical activity we seek to engage both freedoms.