Cultural conditions of the understanding human rights. The German law studies and the legalisation of disputable religious practices

Abstract

There has been an intensive debate within the German law studies on the legal permissibility of circumcision of male children. The dispute that has now been going for several years seems to be focused on the question whether in the event of circumcision the child’s interest is at risk, which would then constitute the grounds for the State’s interference with the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children.

The discussion on the legal permissibility of circumcision seems to constitute an exemplification of more general problems with which a democratic state of law (Rechtsstaat) as well as the theoretical reflection on law are confronted. Such problems include the definition of the essence and the limits of the right of parents to direct the upbringing of children, as well as the right to freedom of faith, a potential conflict of constitutional rights and freedoms, a dynamic interpretation of human rights related to the changing sensitivity with respect to protected goods, or finally the justification of the application of universal rules of law in the context of increasing cultural and axiological pluralism of modern societies. The following considerations present an overview of the development of the legal status of circumcision in Germany, as well as the main arguments raised in the German debate on the legal permissibility of circumcision.