Howard M. Friedman (LexBlog Austria)

In two recent Chamber Judgments, the European Court of Human Rights reaffirmed its prior holding in a 2021 case that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose adherents are also known as Pastafarians, does not qualify as a “religion” or “belief” protected by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In Sager v....

Last Friday, Austria’s Constitutional Court issued two important decisions. It held it unconstitutional to prohibit assisting suicide.  According to the Court’s press release: At the request of several people affected, including two seriously ill people, the Constitutional Court (VfGH) repealed the provision that makes assisting suicide a criminal offense: The phrase “or help him” in...