10 European States Join Italy to Defend Crucifix Against Activist Court

Ten European states have joined Italy in their opposition to a European Court of Human Rights decision which demanded that Italy remove crucifixes from the classrooms of it's schools.

The states standing with Italy in it's opposition to the court ruling include: Armenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, San-Marino, Romania, and The Russian Federation.

10 European States Join Italy to Defend Crucifix


Catholic and Orthodox Join in Alliance


The director of the European Centre for Law and Justice, Gregor Puppinck, stated in a communiqué today that this is "an important precedent in the practice of the court, because usually member States abstain from intervening, or intervene only when the case affects a national of their State."

"The Lautsi case is unique and unprecedented," he continued. "Ten States are in fact explaining to the court what is the limit of its jurisdiction; what is the limit of its ability to create new 'rights' against the will of the member States."

"This can be seen as a kind of counter-balancing of power," he explained.

The communiqué also noted the "tremendous importance" of the fact that this is "an unprecedented alliance between Catholics and Orthodox countries in the face of the liberal and secularist ideology."

"Those countries are uniting their forces to protect their religious heritage and freedom to reaffirm that the Christian symbols have a natural right to be displayed in public within Christian countries," it added.

The center pointed out that the court's role is to apply the European Convention on Human Rights, which says nothing about "duties to secularize education in Europe" nor about "the nature of the relationship between the State and the church."

Read more: Zenit

Italy has already indicated that it may not follow the ruling of the court if they lose their appeal, their Constitutional Court saying that such rulings "lack legitimacy".

Italian Constitutional Court stated that where rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) conflict with provisions of the Italian Constitution, such rulings "lack legitimacy." Sources close to the Italian judiciary told the Friday Fax that the decision was intended as a warning that activist rulings by the Strasbourg-based ECHR overstepping jurisdictional boundaries will not be given deference.

C-Fam

Related thread: 12 Reasons the Cross Is Not a Violation of Freedom





[edit on 6/2/10 by FortAnthem]

"Ten States are in fact explaining to the court what is the limit of its jurisdiction; what is the limit of its ability to create new 'rights' against the will of the member States."

That's my favorite line in this article. If only the states here in the US would have the balls to stand up and do the same.

The US Supreme Court having the authority to decide on the Constitutionality of laws is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. It assumed that power. Neither Congress, the President nor the states effectively stood up against this at the time and the court has continued to grab more power ever since.

I hope the Europeans are more successful at reigning in their court than we were here in the states.

[edit on 6/2/10 by FortAnthem]