This panel discussion is organised by the European Union Law Working Group.
European societies are increasingly marked by superdiversity. They face growing polarisation and fragmentation, despite significant integration processes, enhanced interconnectedness, and globalization. Law reflects these societal shifts in various ways, e.g. whether through the recognition of multicultural lifestyles or the preservation of specific cultural values.
In a recent asylum case (C-646/21), the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that it is possible to adopt Western values, norms and behaviours during a phase of life that is particularly identity-defining. In the context of culturally diverse and pluralistic societies, this form of justification can be described as an inverted form of othering, whereby a normative inclusion occurs.
This landmark decision provides an opportunity to examine fundamental questions concerning the complex interplay between shared cultural ideas, values and norms, and the ways in which they are recognised and observed by the law. In doing so, it is necessary to consider the extent to which the law can accommodate the formation and recognition of certain identities, particularly in instances where cultural values, ideas and behaviours are adopted as a normative point of reference and must be defined within the context of a culturally superdiverse society and its imagined homogeneity.
Speakers:
Patricia Jerónimo (Jean Monnet Fellow, EUI)
Joyce De Coninck (Max Weber Fellow, EUI)
Nikko Kulke (PhD Student, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
Davide Tomaselli (PhD Student, EUI)
Narin Nosrati (PhD Student, LMU Munich)
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