This article aims to give insight in negotiations which took place from 1999 to 2002 between diverse Protestant parties in Belgium and which resulted in an enlargement of the recognized Protestant religion. This enlargement primarily served free Evangelical churches, as it allowed them to share in the benefits consequent to official recognition by the state. The article describes their strategic choices in view of full state recognition and highlights the active role played by the ‘neutral’ Belgian state in the negotiations that took place concerning this recognized religion.

The Flemish Christian Democratic Party was founded in 1945. In its so-called ‘Kerstprogramma’ (‘Christmas Program’), the ‘Christelijke Volkspartij’ (Christian People’s Party, CVP) cut ties with the explicitly religious character of its direct predecessor, the Catholic Bloc. Nevertheless, the party remains to find its inspiration in Christianity. This article will discuss non-exhaustively how Christian values still remain an important guideline to the Christian democratic discourse of CD&V, based on three pillars rooted in Christianity: trust, love of one’s neighbour and respect for human dignity.

Politics and law are not in essence about knowledge, good sense and learning, but about wisdom. Good legislation requires wisdom and the wise judge is also the ideal when it comes to good adjudication. But what is wisdom actually and who is the sage? To answer these questions, this article departs from the views of the Stoa (of Seneca especially) which has been of fundamental significance for the development of law and which still continues to influence it. It shows how the philosophical views of the Stoics included an objective view of law and cultivated a subjective impassibility and apathy that were associated with steadfastness or constancy. Stoic wisdom was (and still is): virtuous obedience to the objective laws of nature. In modern Stoics like Spinoza and Justus Lipsius we find these same elements. But in modern times Stoicism is wrapped in the veil of a Christian vision of life, which (as such) serves as a seductive legitimation of its principles. In this guise Stoicism has been of enormous significance in the history of Christianity. However, their historical relationship is based on a major misunderstanding. In fact, Stoicism is Christianity’s most extreme alternative, as Erasmus already pointed out. For the Stoic sage a theoretical and practical wisdom applies that is not (in any way) in accordance with the courageous foolishness of Christianity. It is through the prism of this foolishness that we come to appreciate that the eternal Stoic attitude is odious when it comes to law and politics. Stoicism is a recurring crisis phenomenon: a cultural sickness, for which the wisdom of Christianity still offers a very effective medicine.

The future of catholic migrant communities in the Netherlands depends on the broader social trends and their impact on religious communities. Four trends are discussed in this paper: general secularization that affects especially the mainline churches, enlargement of scale of organization that diminishes the parish commitment of members, the bricolage of religious behavior that implies that believers make choices about their commitment to one or more religious traditions, and finally the general debates about religion in post-secular society. These trends provide threats and opportunities to migrant communities, but also pose these for dilemmas.

The first national research into church formation among Roman Catholic migrants in the Netherlands dates from the year 2006. Since then many changes took place within these communities. However, there is not a single institution that collects their addresses and data. Policymakers, scholars or journalists do not have access to recent information. Based on questions about their development and composition, this article updates information about these church communities and places them in a broader historical context. One of the most significant findings in this article concerns the stability of their regular parishioners, that contrasts with the national trend in Roman Catholic Church, which is constantly dealing with a declining amount of members.

A medical doctor in The Netherlands is not punishable under the law for assisting in a patient’s self-chosen death as long as (s)he has fulfilled the conditions of the Euthanasia Law of 2002. This law regards patients with unbearable and hopeless suffering who request an end to their life. This article will regard euthanasia from the perspective of Roman Catholic church law: if a Catholic doctor in The Netherlands ends the life of a patient in conformity with the Euthanasia Law, could this nevertheless be considered a crime of manslaughter as stipulated in Canon 1397 of the Code of Canon Law (1983)? And is that doctor then punishable under that law? It will be demonstrated that this is not the case, because the church law does not regard a crime similar to euthanasia under Dutch law, even though the killing of an innocent person is considered a sin. Against the background of the logic in church law, this article will make a comparison with the crime of abortion as stipulated in Canon 1398 of the ecclesiastical Code. It will be demonstrated that manslaughter and abortion share a different but illuminating history and topicality.

On 20 December 2017, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled that an extrajudicial unilateral divorce brought about in Syria does not come within the substantive scope of the European regulation on the law applicable to divorces (Rome III Regulation). In response to this decision, the inequality between men and women in the divorce law of Muslim countries, the developments that are going on in this area, as well as the role the non-discrimination-principle plays in the recognition policies in European states on Islamic repudiations, are discussed in this contribution.