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39 Geo. Wash. Int'l L. Rev. 839 (2007)
Free Exercise of Religion and Animal Protection: A Comparative Perspective on Ritual Slaughter

handle is hein.journals/gwilr39 and id is 849 raw text is: FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION AND ANIMAL PROTECTION: A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON RITUAL SLAUGHTER CLAUDIA E. HAUPT* INTRODUCTION The free exercise of religion and animal protection at first glance seem to be somewhat unrelated yet by no means mutually exclusive matters. Cases involving religiously motivated animal sac- rifice and ritual slaughter, however, illustrate a conflict. This Arti- cle will examine three such cases, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye Inc. v. City of Hialeah, the Euro- pean Court of Human Rights judgment in Cha'are Shalom Ve Tsedek v. France, and the German Federal Constitutional Court's Schdchten decision. The underlying questions regarding free exercise are: first, whether limits can be placed upon the right to religious free exercise at all, and second, whether the interest in animal protec- tion is a significant enough interest to justify such limits. An emphasis will noticeably be placed on the German case because of its impact. As a result of the Schdchten decision, the German Con- stitution-known also as the Basic Law (Grundgesetz)-was amended to include animal protection in Article 20a. The precise scope of the amendment has yet to be determined. Part I will discuss the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah with regard to free exer- cise of religion and animal sacrifice, thereby providing an introduc- tion from the U.S. perspective. Part II will examine the European Court of Human Rights' judgment in Jewish Liturgical Association Cha'are Shalom Ve Tsedek v. France and Part III then turns to the Schiichten decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court and the constitutional amendment. Part IV will offer a comparative perspective, illustrating the similarities and differences in the way the respective courts address the slaughter issue as well as the free exercise issue. The comparison yields insight into a number of * Visiting Scholar, German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C. Ph.D. candidate, University of Cologne; J.D. (equivalent), University of Cologne; M.A., State University of New York at Albany. I thank Joan Schaffner and Norbert Finzsch for their insightful comments.

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