The Collaborations-Relations Between Western (Secular) Law and Religious Nomoi Groups in Today's Multicultural Context: The Cases of France and Canada

In the last decade, under the pressing processes of immigration and globalisation, many Western constitutional democracies have moved from a number of religions sharing a common culture to today’s age of diversity. What current democracies are facing is the lack of overlapping consensus over basic constitutional ‘‘values’’. The nature, scope and force of such values are likely to be affected by competing and, sometimes, contested fundamental reasons and worldviews. From here stems the dilemma between ‘‘unity’’ and ‘‘diversity’’. This essay starts with a broad consideration on the principle of religious freedom, strictly related to the separation as well as collaboration between secular States and Churches; then the author analyses two case-studies (France and Canada), pointing out some specific legal approaches. In particular he focuses the analyses over the French ‘‘droit commun’’ and the Canadian arbitral tribunals that, especially in family law, allow disputes to be arbitrated using religious jurisdictions.