The State’s Right to Err: Why David Kenny Now Supports Murphy v. Ireland

In Murphy v. Ireland (2003), the European Court of Human Rights decided in favor of the state’s power to prevent a radio station from broadcasting a religious advertisement, based on public order concerns. David Kenny of Trinity College Dublin was initially disappointed that the Strasbourg Court did not find against Ireland. But over time he came to see the decision differently. While he still does not approve of the Irish domestic court decisions that were challenged to the ECtHR, he has reconsidered his opinion on how the ECtHR, as an international court, should deal with cases when religious sensitivities are involved. Kenny explains why he is still skeptical about the “view from Dublin” on Murphy but appreciates “the view from Strasbourg.”

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Is Bosnia and Herzegovina Discriminating Against Its Largest Religious Group by Refusing to Sign an Agreement with the Islamic Community?

Harun Išerić is a senior teaching and research assistant at the University of Sarajevo—Faculty of Law. He is also a member of the Freedom of Religion Commission established by the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

When Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) adopted its Law on Freedom of Religion in 2004, it established the principles of separation between the state and religious communities, state neutrality toward all religious communities, equal treatment of religious communities before the law, and cooperation through agreements between the state (including its subnational units) and religious communities. The latter agreements are intended to regulate “issues of common interest.” This framework has led scholars to describe the relationship between the state and religious communities as one of “separation with cooperation.”

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The Rules of Engagement: Identifying the Defining Features of the European Union’s Sui Generis Model of Religion-State Relations

Fearghas O’Beara is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Religion, Human Values, and International Relations at Dublin City University and is head of the European Parliament Liaison Office in Ireland. This post is based on chapter 5 of his book The European Union and Religion: The Supranational Meets the Supernatural (Routledge 2026).

On 1 July 2026, Ireland took over from Cyprus the six-monthly rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, convening and presiding over the governments of the 27 EU member states until the end of 2026. On 7 July, Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin, presented his government’s legislative program to the plenary of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, under three broad themes indicative of the current challenges facing the Union in an increasingly volatile geo-political context: competitiveness, security, and values. Two days later Prime Minister Martin met at Government Buildings in Dublin to discuss this program with representatives of Europe’s main Christian churches.

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