Constitutionalizing secularism, alternative secularisms or liberal democratic constitutionalism?

Laikliğin anayasal statüsü ile ilgili son tartışmalarda üç durumu ayırdedebiliyoruz. Birincisi, çoğu liberal demokratik anayasada anayasal laikliğin daha sağlam bir teorisini geliştirerek laiklik‟in yokluğunu aşmaya çalışır. İkincisi alternatif laiklikler‟ teorileri geliştirmektedir. Üçüncüsü, bu makalede savunulan, laikliği kakafonik‟ bir kavram olarak anayasal ve yasal terminolojiden bırakmamız ve bunu liberal demokratik anayasacılık ile değiştirmemiz gerektiğini tartışmaktadır. Türk ve Hindistan yüksek mahkemelerinin ele aldığı laiklik davalarının karşılaştırmalı bir çalışmasına dayanan, laikliğin oniki farklı anlamına yer verilen bir analitik sınıflandırma geliştiriyorum. Bu sınıflandırma, sözkonusu örneklerin birbirleriyle ve liberal demokratik anayasaların özü ile bağdaşmadığını göstermektedir. Ayrıca, Türk ve Hint uygulaması bağlamında ilgili kararlar eleştirilmektedir. Özellikle militan demokrasilerde‟ laiklik ilkesine yönelik ilgi, liberal ve demokratik anayasal esaslara düşman bir hale dönüşmektedir. Çalışma, anayasa yargısı ve yargısal aktivizm üzerine bazı normatif önerilerle sona ermektedir.

A critical reading of some Turkish, ecthr and ındian supreme court cases on secularism

In recent debates on the constitutional status of 'secularism' we can discern three positions. The first tries to overcome the absence of 'secularism' in most liberal-democratic constitutions by developing a more robust theory of constitutional secularism. The second develops theories of 'alternative secularisms'. The third, defended in this article, argues that we should drop secularism as a 'cacophonous' concept from our constitutional and legal language and replace it by liberal-democratic constitutionalism. I develop an analytical taxonomy of twelve different meanings of 'secularism' based on a comparative study of Turkish and Indian Supreme Court cases on secularism, and demonstrate that they are incompatible with each other and with the hard core of liberal-democratic constitutions. Next, I criticize the respective rulings in the Turkish and Indian context. Particularly in 'militant democracies', the appeal to a principle of 'secularism' turns out to be inimical to the liberal and to the democratic 'constitutional essentials'. I end with some normative recommendations on the role of constitutional review and judicial activism.

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Court Rulings:

Relevant Parts of the Constitutional Court‟s Decision on the Dissolution of the Refah Party; 5tcc-decision.doc

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