Religious Slaughter and Animal Welfare Revisited: CJEU, Liga van Moskeeën en islamitische Organisaties Provincie Antwerpen (2018)

• Author: Anne Peters
• Position: Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law Heidelberg
• Pages: 269-297

Religious Slaughter and Animal

Welfare Revisited: CJEU, Liga van

Moskeeën en islamitische Organisaties

Provincie Antwerpen (2018)

Anne Peters*

e article comments on a Grand Chamber judgment by the Court of the European

Union on animal slaughter according to Islamic prescriptions. e relevant European

Union laws prescribe that religious slaughter without stunning of the animal may only

take place in approved slaughterhouses. is causes a shortage during the Muslim Feast of

Sacrice in the Belgian province of Antwerp. e EU law provisions are in conformity

with the animal welfare mainstreaming clause of the Treaty on the Functioning of

the European Union. Moreover, the EU regulation and its application in the concrete

case does not violate the fundamental right of free exercise of religion as guaranteed by

the EU Fundamental Rights Charter. Finally, the refusal to make an exception for

the peak demand for slaughter facilities during the Feast of Sacrice does not constitute

an indirect discrimination against Muslims. e paper agrees with the outcome of the

judgment but criticises the Court for failing to consider the rights of religious minorities

more broadly, and for not addressing the animal welfare point suciently.

* Anne Peters is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative

Public Law and International Law Heidelberg, a professor at the

universities of Heidelberg, Freie Universität Berlin, and Basel, and a

William W Cook Global Law Professor at the University of Michigan.

She has been a member of the European Commission for Democracy

through Law (Venice Commission) in respect of Germany (2011–2015),

served as the President of the European Society of International Law

(2010–2012), and currently presides over the German Association of

International Law. e author thanks professor Jochen A Frowein, Dr.

Torben Guretzki, and Dr. Tom Sparks for helpful critique on the draft.

270

Peters, Religious Slaughter and Animal Welfare Revisited

I. INTRODUCTION

II. BACKGROUND, PROCEEDINGS, AND FACTS ON SLAUGHTER

III. COMPATIBILITY OF THE EU REGULATION WITH ARTICLE  TFEU

IV. COMPATIBILITY OF THE EU REGULATION WITH THE FREEDOM

OF RELIGION

A. No actual restriction of the fundamental right by the rule “as such”

B. Strict application of the provisions during the Feast of Sacrif‌ice in

Muslim populated areas

V. INDIRECT DISCRIMINATION OF A RELIGIOUS GROUP THROUGH

STRICT APPLICATION OF THE REGULATION?

A. e test for indirect discrimination

B. e prohibition of home slaughter as a suitable and necessary measure

to further animal welfare as a legitimate objective in the public interest

C. Relevant case law of the ECtHR

D. Proportionality of the refusal to make an exception

E. Summary

VI. CONCLUSION

I. Introduction

The tension between respect for religious and cultural practices on the

one side and animal welfare on the other is particularly acute when

it comes to slaughter. From a legal perspective, this tension translates into

a juridic conf‌lict between the fundamental rights of religious believers on

the one hand and the legally recognised objective of animal protection on