CUREDI - Cultural and Religious Diversity under State Law across Europe

How are issues involving cultural and religious diversity, and the questions they raise in law, addressed in the different countries of Europe?

In 2018, the Department of Law & Anthropology at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology undertook an initiative to address these questions in a comparative way.

CUREDI (or, ‘Cultural and Religious Diversity under State Law across Europe’) is a digital repository of cases - with a focus on case law analysis - that have to do with cultural and religious diversity within the domestic legal systems of member states of the EU, UK, and Switzerland.

CUREDI engages with a network of interdisciplinary scientific teams to identify, document, and offer in-depth analyses of legal reasoning on the manifold issues related to the growing social diversity throughout the EU, the UK and Switzerland. These analyses demonstrate how domestic legal orders are gradually adapting to the reality of increasing cultural and religious diversity, as well as the demands for its recognition.

Each searchable analysis, or ‘template’, focuses on the arguments used in the rulings to justify the granting or, conversely, the rejection of claims to recognition of traditions, concepts, practices, beliefs, etc. Of particular relevance to the aims of CUREDI are issues related to empirical evidence, recourse to anthropological literature, and expert testimony before judicial or administrative contexts to render a decision.

Ultimately, it is hoped this interdisciplinary initiative meets the needs of research and legal practice in an increasingly diverse Europe.