Kosher and Halal Slaughtering before the European Court of Justice: Voting with Your Trolley Instead of an Outright Ban?

In December 2020 the Court of Justice of the EU approved the legality of a decree, adopted by the Flemish Region in Belgium, which introduced an outright ban on slaughtering of animals by means of traditional Jewish and Muslim rites. The Court, which did not adopt the opinion of Advocate General Hogan, effectively nullified an express derogation for ritual slaughtering found in the EUs regulation on slaughtering. Drawing on our earlier findings that the judgment misinterpreted EU law and compromised the rights of European minorities to religious freedom under the Charter of Fundamental Rights, this article will argue that the adoption of a legal regime that is based on labelling of meat products produced in traditional-religious rites of slaughtering is preferable to an outright ban, in terms of the right to free movement of goods, the functioning of the Internal Market, the principles of proportionality and subsidiarity, and judicial consistence and coherence. In view of the fact that the Courts judgment may cause other European states to follow in the footsteps of Belgium and ban kosher and Halal slaughter, an immediate change in policy by the Court or by EU legislators is imperative.