Abstract
A certain degree of legal pluralism is the reality in European countries already today. Within the system of minority protection a question should be posed how we can use the positive integration potential of legal pluralism and, at the same time, avoid the risks of parallel societies.As shown by the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, a strict concept of legal pluralism that provides different rules only for members of a religious minority would be incompatible with the European standards of human rights protection.
Discrimination on grounds of an individual's affiliation with a particular minority is unacceptable. Whenever different rules of minority communities should, in certain cases, replace the standard procedure under national law, this has to be secured within the frame of individual choice.
This approach has been reflected in the regulation of contractual relations. In a secularstate, legal pluralism should be used only with a view of the hierarchy of legal norms for the benefit of fundamental values of the constitutional order.
On the one hand, the state should not interfere with the internal affairs of minority communities.On the other hand, the state is obliged to ensure that, within its jurisdiction, no decisions and practices of minorities that are in clear contradiction with the essential values will be recognized.