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Pluralism is a defining feature of European human rights law and of the European constitution. Contestability and conditional deference determine how participating states eventually calibrate their relation to international and supranational authority. This structure gives rise to differences of opinion that reverberate throughout a public sphere that is composed of a growing number of scholars. They increasingly rely on digital media to exchange their ideas. A major role has come to be played by blogs such as the Verfassungsblog. Since its inception, its focus has rested on defending the values of constitutionalism vis-à-vis 'backsliding' Member States. The constitutional culture that results from this is somewhat reminiscent of Germany during the period of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933). While the rise of authoritarianism is a major issue, public law scholarship appears to become increasingly partisan. As European constitutional law emerges against the backdrop of an expanding public sphere, scholarly interventions are drawn into the vortex of politics. Unsurprisingly, scholarship begins to face up to its politicisation by reflecting on its proper task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Article 7, paragraph 3, the German Constitution provides that religious education shall be a part of the curriculum of public school. This is one of the three approaches of dealing with religious education existing today. Originally, religious education as a regular subject at public schools in Germany was only offered by the two Christian Churches—Catholic and Protestant. As the number of Christians decreased and the number of Muslims increased, the demand for Islamic religious education at public schools grew. Therefore, the question arose whether the constitutional law concerning religion is capable of facing the new challenges of religious diversity. This Article tries to answer this question with regard to the introduction of Islamic religious education as a measure of adaptiveness. In the first step, the requirements of Article 7, paragraph 3 of the Constitution posed to religious education will be outlined in order to be able to examine in the second step whether Islamic religious education may be introduced at public schools as a regular subject. In this regard, the issue of the qualification of an umbrella association as a religious society and the constitutionality of the advisory board model will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]