Admissible Level of "Immorality": European Law and Traditional Values

Abstract

This article deals with the cases in ECHR, concerning suits appealing to the article 10 of the European Convention for Human Rights (freedom of expression). The author pays special attention to claims protesting against state intervention powered by the desire to protect morality as well as against sanctions for blasphemy. One can find analysis of law enforcement practice of ECHR and fluctuations of Court’s strategy (as an example author analyses «the Lautsi case»). Author concludes that the policy of the Court could be characterized as transitional, but the direction of this transition is still unclear. The Court faces two possible alternatives: either the freedom of speech will be defended in all its fullness, or will the margins of appreciation of national powers prevail; in the latter case, the national forces will control ideological, cultural and informational square under pretext of defending religion and morality.