Orthodox Christianity and Freedom of religion in European Court of Human Rights Case Law

The study of ECHR case law on religious freedom in cases of countries with an Orthodox tradition leads to two sets of remarks relating to the role and the attitude of the European human rights judges toward Orthodox countries and the attitude of the Orthodox countries themselves with respect to the right of religious freedom, which is a function of the specific social, historical, political and religious context. The first set of remarks relates to the difficulties of the Strasbourg judges in cases brought by the Orthodox applicants in understanding the status of Orthodoxy, including the status and specificities of the internal administrative structure of the Churches, the status of Orthodox priests, and the complex configuration of relations between Orthodox canonical law and civil law. The second set of remarks relates to the difficulties that Orthodox countries face in the application of the theological Orthodox ideal of “symphony” (συμφωνία), or, in other words, the “system of co-reciprocity” or “synallelia”, that was developed in Byzantium, and which continues to this day to govern – at least in theory – Church State relations in various orthodox countries