Book contents
- Constitutional Intolerance
- Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy
- Constitutional Intolerance
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 What Is Constitutional Intolerance?
- 2 Governing Religious Difference
- 3 Toleration, Time, and the Other
- 4 National Identity, Publicness, and Public Space
- 5 Dynamic Interpretation of Constitutional Concepts
- 6 Ad libitum Use of Constitutional Concepts
- 7 Constitutional Identity as a Political Instrument
- 8 Pseudo-constitutional Repertoires
- 9 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Ad libitum Use of Constitutional Concepts
Public Order in the Netherlands
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 January 2025
- Constitutional Intolerance
- Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy
- Constitutional Intolerance
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 What Is Constitutional Intolerance?
- 2 Governing Religious Difference
- 3 Toleration, Time, and the Other
- 4 National Identity, Publicness, and Public Space
- 5 Dynamic Interpretation of Constitutional Concepts
- 6 Ad libitum Use of Constitutional Concepts
- 7 Constitutional Identity as a Political Instrument
- 8 Pseudo-constitutional Repertoires
- 9 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter introduces the notion of an ad libitum or at-will use of the constitutional concept of public order. The concept of public order fulfils an important role in the protection of minorities but also extends far beyond the interests of religious and ethnoreligious minorities. The Dutch prohibition of the full-face veil demonstrated a susceptibility of the concept of public order to social norms. Initially a flagship of Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam movement, the Cabinet in some ways successfully captured the topic and diminished the language of aggressive othering of Islam to issues of communication and a vague concept of living together. This could be understood against the backdrop of political gains made on the far-right across Europe, and the law perhaps contributed to an attempt at containing this threat of political gains from the far-right.
- Type
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- Information
- Constitutional IntoleranceThe Fashioning of the Other in Europe's Constitutional Repertoires, pp. 87 - 103Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025