Italian High Court Defends Crucifixes, National Sovereignty against European Human Rights Court

Wednesday January 6, 2010
By Hilary White
ROME

(LifeSiteNews.com) – Italy’s Constitutional Court has issued a ruling asserting the supremacy of Italian law and custom over the orders of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In November, an order that all crucifixes must be removed from Italian state schools from the Strasbourg-based ECHR caused outrage in Italy. Legal experts warned that the decision would undermine both religious freedoms and national sovereignty in all European Union member states.

But the Italian High Court has said that where rulings by the ECHR conflict with provisions of the Italian Constitution, such rulings “lack legitimacy.” Piero A. Tozzi, of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute said that the decision was intended as a warning against ideologically-motivated rulings by the Strasbourg court and against its overstepping jurisdictional boundaries. the rest