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France Bans The Veil: What French Republicanism Has To Say About It, Stéphane Mechoulan
France Bans The Veil: What French Republicanism Has To Say About It, Stéphane Mechoulan
Stéphane Mechoulan
In 2011, France banned the wearing of face-veils in public. This criminalization of face covering was criticized by the U.S. State Department, prominent NGOs, and legal academics of the Anglo-liberal tradition as an improper violation of freedom of religion and expression. Against this backdrop, the 2014 decision of the European Court of Human Rights upholding the ban provides a timely opportunity to better understand the republican rationale behind it. Through reconsidering the competing conceptions of the common good produced by Anglo-liberalism and French republicanism I explore how the ban aims to preserve an organizing principle of the Rousseauist social contract. …