Publisher : Carocci editore - Rome
Italian
Religious Freedom in Italy. An Unfinished Path (1848-2024)
Published under the original title La libertà religiosa in Italia. Un percorso incompiuto (1848-2024), this synthesis by Alessandro Ferrari, professor of ecclesiastical law and comparative religious law at the University of Insubria and director of the REDESM (Research Centre “Religions, Rights and Economies in the Mediterranean Space”), appeared in February 2025 with Carocci in the Studi Superiori series. It is a substantially reworked new edition, thirteen years after the first.
Relations between public authorities and religions, and the right to religious freedom in particular, have played a central role in Italian history; four articles of the Italian Constitution are devoted to it, a rare case in contemporary constitutionalism. Ferrari traces this path from 1848 (Albertine Statute) to 2024, reading it as an unfinished journey that is regularly reopened by the emergence of new religious minorities, today prominently including Muslim communities.
The book offers a framework for understanding how the Italian legal order constructs its neutrality while accommodating, not without tensions, a religious pluralism that goes well beyond the old State/Catholic Church binomial. The legal status of Islam in Italy, in the absence of an intesa negotiated with the State, emerges as one of the sharpest revelators of this unfinished path.
This new Italian edition complements the account proposed in English by the same author in Religious Freedom in Italy. An Impossible Paradigm (De Gruyter, 2024).
Publié sous le titre original La libertà religiosa in Italia. Un percorso incompiuto (1848-2024), ce manuel de synthèse d’Alessandro Ferrari, professeur de droit ecclésiastique et de droit comparé des religions à l’Université de l’Insubrie et directeur du REDESM (Centre de recherche « Religions, droits et économies dans l’espace méditerranéen »), paraît en février 2025 chez Carocci dans la collection Studi Superiori. Il s’agit d’une nouvelle édition, largement refondue, treize ans après la première.
Les rapports entre pouvoirs publics et religions, et en particulier le droit à la liberté religieuse, ont joué un rôle central dans l’histoire de l’Italie ; la Constitution italienne y consacre quatre articles, ce qui reste un cas rare dans le constitutionnalisme contemporain. Ferrari retrace ce parcours de 1848 (Statut albertin) à 2024, en le lisant comme un cheminement inachevé, régulièrement rouvert par l’irruption de nouvelles minorités religieuses, dont, aujourd’hui, les communautés musulmanes.
L’ouvrage propose un cadre pour comprendre la manière dont l’ordre juridique italien construit sa neutralité tout en accueillant, non sans tensions, un pluralisme religieux qui déborde le vieux binôme État-Église catholique. La question du statut juridique de l’islam en Italie, en l’absence d’intesa négociée avec l’État, y apparaît comme l’un des révélateurs les plus vifs de ce parcours inachevé.
Cette nouvelle édition italienne complète la lecture proposée en anglais par le même auteur dans Religious Freedom in Italy. An Impossible Paradigm (De Gruyter, 2024).
يظهر هذا الكتابُ التحليليّ لـأليساندرو فرّاري، أستاذ القانون الكنسيّ والقانون المقارن للأديان في جامعة إنسوبريا، ومدير مركز REDESM لدراسة «الأديان والحقوق والاقتصادات في الفضاء المتوسّطي»، بعنوانه الأصلي:
La libertà religiosa in Italia. Un percorso incompiuto (1848-2024)
أي «الحرية الدينية في إيطاليا: مسارٌ غير مكتمل (1848-2024)». صدر في فبراير/شباط 2025 عن منشورات كاروتشي ضمن سلسلة Studi Superiori، وهو طبعة جديدة موسّعة بعد ثلاثة عشر عامًا من الطبعة الأولى.
احتلّت العلاقات بين السلطات العامة والأديان، ولا سيّما الحقّ في الحرية الدينية، مكانةً مركزيةً في تاريخ إيطاليا الحديث؛ وقد خصّها الدستور الإيطاليّ بأربعِ موادَّ صريحة، وهو أمرٌ نادر في الدساتير المعاصرة. يتتبّع فرّاري هذا المسار من عام 1848 (النظام الأساسي الألبرتيّ) إلى عام 2024، ويقرأه بوصفه رحلةً لم تكتمل بعد، تنفتح باستمرارٍ على تحدّياتٍ جديدة تفرضها الأقليات الدينية الوافدة، ومنها اليوم الجاليات المسلمة.
يقدّم الكتاب إطارًا لفهم الطريقة التي يُصوغ بها النظامُ القانونيّ الإيطاليّ حياده، وهو يستقبل، وسط توتّراتٍ لا تخفى، تعدّديةً دينيةً باتت تتجاوز الثنائيّة القديمة «الدولة/الكنيسة الكاثوليكية». وتظهر مسألة الوضع القانوني للإسلام في إيطاليا، في غياب اتفاقيةٍ (intesa) مع الدولة، بوصفها من أوضح مؤشّرات عدم اكتمال هذا المسار.
وتُكمّل هذه الطبعة الإيطالية القراءةَ الإنجليزية التي قدّمها المؤلّف نفسه في كتاب Religious Freedom in Italy. An Impossible Paradigm (دار دي غرويتر، 2024).
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