Individual rights and freedom''s relevance increases both domestically and globally being reflected in various domestic constitutions and supranational/international covenants. The rights paradigm triggering an enormous amount of litigation increasingly attracts the attention of international human rights and comparative constitutional law. The present book consisting of two essays touches upon the freedom of religion in state institutions and socio-economic rights by looking at the European, especially German, the Canadian and the South African context.The first essay critically evaluates the main argumentation strands of courts with regard to religious manifestations and discusses their conclusiveness. The second essay is concerned with distinct design options of socio-economic constitutional provisions by specifically juxtaposing the German social state principle and the South African socio-economic rights. The present work combines theoretical and practical considerations and is therefore equally addressed to academics and practitioners of comparative constitutional and international human rights law as well as laymen.

Engin Ciftci, LL.M.; undergraduate studies in law and PhD at the University of Trier/Germany, studies in Human Rights Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Currently legal trainee in the Higher Regional Court Frankfurt am Main/Germany.