Individual religious freedom under the European Convention of Human Rights

This chapter focuses on individual manifestations of freedom of religion under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The chapter first offers an overview of developments in the case law, tracing key elements to the early days of the Kokkinakis case. The analysis reveals that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) continues to have a rather generous take on permissible limitations of religious liberty, and it also tends to be less demanding in the proportionality analysis than with other ECHR rights. At the same time, the analysis also shows that in recent years the CJEU has started to develop a sui generis duty of state neutrality under Article 9.