Shari’a Law in Catholic Italy: A Non-agnostic Model of Accommodation

Abstract

The Italian Constitution and its interpretation by the Constitutional Court have led to the development of a model of accommodation of religious practices that seeks to balance a commitment to promoting religious pluralism whilst, at the same time, maintaining the neutrality of state institutions. What is distinctive about this quasi-neutral constitutional stance is the commitment to reduce the discrepancies between the legal and religious effects of key life decisions. I call this stance ‘positive secularism.’ In this essay, I would like to show that, thus far, positive secularism has been particularly effective in accommodating the demands of Muslim immigrants. For instance, some aspects of the Shari’a law, such as marriage and divorce (including some effects of unilateral divorce), are already recognized by Italian international private law. The second stage for the accommodation of Shari’a law in Italy is likely to be the recognition of Islam as one of Italy’s official religions.