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Humanising Animal Slaughter Need Not Infringe Religious Freedom (Amicus Curiae Brief in C-336/19 Centraal Israëlitisch Consistorie Van België and Others)
- Source :
- SSRN Electronic Journal.
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Stunning animals before slaughter and avoiding unnecessary suffering is mandatory throughout the EU. Although the EU Animal Slaughter Regulation allows for a ‘religious exception’ departing from such a practice, it also expressly enables Member States to adopt “national rules aimed at ensuring more extensive protection of animals at the time of killing”. That’s how Denmark, Sweden and Slovenia were able to, ban slaughter without stunning tout court. The Flemish region falls short of banning un-stunned slaughter, by prescribing instead reversible stunning. This method, by rendering the animal unconscious only for the time it takes to cut its throat, seems to respect the religious requirement of it remaining alive so the blood is pumped out by its still beating heart. According to well-established scientific evidence, this method is not only less traumatizing for the animal, and makes its handling easier for the butcher, but it is also accepted by a growing number of representatives of these religious communities. However, reversible stunning - as prescribed by the Flemish region - now faces a major legal challenge across Europe, having been challenged before the Belgian Constitutional Court, which has in turn referred the matter to the Court of Justice of the EU. This amicus curiae brief argues that a legislation – like the Flemish decree in question – prescribing an alternative stunning procedure for the slaughter carried out in the context of a religious rite is permissible under Union law, not least having regard to the guarantees of religious liberty and freedom contained in the Charter. It presents reversible stunning as a method that successfully balances the apparently competing values of religious freedom expressed in ritual slaughtering on the one hand and the concern for animal welfare on the other under current EU law.
- Subjects :
- Subsidiarity
0211 other engineering and technologies
Slaughter
Proportionality (law)
02 engineering and technology
Animal Welfare
Animal slaughter
JEL: K - Law and Economics/K.K2 - Regulation and Business Law/K.K2.K20 - General
Religious Freedom
Competence
JEL: K - Law and Economics/K.K1 - Basic Areas of Law
Animal welfare
Political science
Animal Rights
media_common.cataloged_instance
European Union
Constitutional court
Proportionality
European union
Butcher
0505 law
media_common
050502 law
JEL: K - Law and Economics/K.K3 - Other Substantive Areas of Law/K.K3.K33 - International Law
05 social sciences
Halal
021107 urban & regional planning
Kosher
16. Peace & justice
Animal rights
Shechita
Animal Law
JEL: K - Law and Economics/K.K3 - Other Substantive Areas of Law/K.K3.K32 - Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
Law
JEL: K - Law and Economics/K.K2 - Regulation and Business Law
[SHS.GESTION]Humanities and Social Sciences/Business administration
Animal law
Stunning
Public Health
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15565068
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- SSRN Electronic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....50bc024273ce5a38acf581cd3d2be180