020099 VU Law and Religion (2008S)

"The Return of Religions", "Religion in the Public Sphere", building restrictions for mosques, the "islamic" headdress", the "Dialogue" of religions, churches and atheism with representatives of the EU, the cooperation of Churches in Europe, the "new Ecumenism", the "Sozialwort", social and cultural constitutional rights, for instance in a new Austrian Federal Constitution, and the organizational reform of the Protestant Church in Austria --- these are the media headlines, and the items of recent debates concerning the relationship between the state and the public, and the religious groups, among the religious groups themselves, and concerning the reform of the Protestant Church in Austria. The most important chapters of the law of the Austrian Protestant Church will be treated systematically, in connection with the priority area of the course, the recent develoments of church-state relations in Europe.