Beyond legal victory or reform: the legal mobilisation of religious groups in the European Court of Human Rights

This contribution considers the emergence of litigation in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) as a common strategy for various grassroots groups. It explores the legal status problems of recognised non-Muslim minorities and belief groups in Turkey in three different yet interlinked fields: the confiscated property of minority foundations, the establishment of community associations and the status of worship places. The analysis in this contribution revolves around legal mobilisation in the ECtHR as a common strategy for various religious groups, focusing on the grassroots actors’ perceptions of their legal status problems and litigation in the ECtHR and, in so doing, illuminating the grassroots level impact of ECtHR case law on religious minority groups. By placing the emphasis on an actor-centred approach to legal mobilisation, this contribution builds on social mobilisation scholarship that encourages a scrutiny of developments at the grassroots level in view of offering an understanding of the indirect effects of the Court’s decisions. Rather than solely analyse government-initiated, central legal reform as a yardstick for the success or failure of a court’s effects over a given country’s policies, this contribution focuses on the indirect effects of the Court’s decisions and draws attention to the much broader range of potential influence of court decisions over the issues which those decisions address