Ideas about the purport and value of religious liberty differ from place to place and can change over time. Over the past fifty years, the trend of secularization has laid the social foundations for a reassessment of religious liberty in the Netherlands. Prompted by the confrontation with Islam, the process of reassessment has gained urgency from, but is also hampered by, terrorist attacks and the migration crisis. However that may be, the result is a prioritization of individual autonomy above freedom of conscience in religious matters. This is borne out by an analysis of parliamentary debates in the Netherlands since 2000 and is explained as part of a broader shift from conscience-based to autonomy-based interpretations of liberalism in Dutch society.

In Europe, female circumcision has been considered a grave violation of human rights. However, many European countries fail to combat this illegal practice. This article answers the question why criminal law enforcement with regard to female circumcision seems to fail in various European states, with the exception of France. To answer this question, this article analyses various models of citizenship.

This article analyzes the relationship between religiosity and organ donation, using unique Dutch register- and survey data of almost 400.000 individuals. One in four of the Dutch population ages 12 years and above is registered as an organ donor. Non-religious individuals are more likely to give permission for the transplantation of their organs than the religious. In particular, there are few organ donors among individuals who very frequently attend religious services. Furthermore, there are differences between religious denominations. Roman-Catholics are more often registered as an organ donor than Protestants, in particular among older generations. The proportion of organ donors is lowest among Muslims.

Aesthetics of law entails a philosophical inquiry into the art and beauty of jurisprudence. In respect to this field of inquiry, Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy (1872) has been largely ignored. Since Socrates’ ‘emancipation’ of the apollonian from the Dionysian element, the art of politics and law, has been founded almost exclusively on logic and scientific knowledge. This tradition of nihilistic ‘socratism’, culminated eventually in legalism and legal positivism that have subdued the acknowledgement of life, subjectivity and creativity. In line with Nietzsche, this article explores the prospective of a ‘rebirth of tragedy’. But in difference to him, it designates this rebirth to develop from out of the spirit of Christianity and Christian existentialism. Paul Scholten in particular, is interpreted as one whose biblical personalist approach resounds this tragic sense of law.

The authors establish that in the West mercy in public life, in particular as acts of judges and governors, underwent a wrongful decline. This decline is an effect of the tension between mercy and justice that grew during the transition of medieval, Christian into modern, secular law and justice. To prove this, the authors present a broad historical overview. Eventually, they argue in favour of an incidental application of mercy in public life, under strict conditions. However, in a secular society and law system mercy can be made acceptable only for the political and public debate. In this situation, an appeal to a more neutral sounding virtue such as compassion will be more convincing.

The French state council ruled that the mayor of Villeneuve-Loubet did not have the right to ban burkinis. The court found that the anti-burkini decrees were “a serious and manifestly illegal attack on fundamental freedoms”, including the right to move around in public and the freedom of conscience. The judges stated that local authorities could only restrict individual liberties if there was a “proven risk” to public order. It ruled that a proven public order risk had not been demonstrated.