"Competitive” Religious Neutrality in the European Union

Far from being a self-defining notion, the principle of neutrality concerning religions is a flexible concept that courts worldwide have conventionally infused with meanings that stem from the historical, socio-political, and economic realities in which they operate. Taking the European Union (EU) as a case study, this paper investigates how, since 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has been framing “neutrality” according to the economic logic of the EU Single Market generally, and the identities and prerogatives of “neutral” employers in particular. Overall, investigating these developments on the status of neutrality yields findings about a newfound “privatisation” trend in EU law and religion. In support of this contention, this paper analyses how the CJEU has initially crafted neutrality according to the economic needs of self-declared “neutral” business actors, subsequently extending market-logic and private sector interpretations of this principle to public sector management. This issue became particularly apparent within the Belgian market, where the CJEU first deferred to for-profit companies in defining neutrality, to then apply their private understanding of this concept to a Belgian public municipality. © 2024, Vita e Pensiero. All rights reserved.