Paper short abstract:

How and to what extent can societal ends, rules of punishment, individual rights and multicultural approaches be assembled in the light of the specificities of the debate on the relation between cultural diversity and judicial practice in criminal courts?

Paper long abstract:

Debates on the relations between culture and law, between cultural diversity and legal practice, be it legislative practice or judicial practice, can intersect different fields of knowledge, different theoretical suasions, and different analytical levels. Motivated by a Portuguese interdisciplinary project on the way judicial courts balance equality and respect for cultural difference, I propose to discuss what are the main challenges and potential misunderstandings arising from that intersection, as well as the practical and ethical-epistemological aspects involved. I will focus specifically on debates on cultural difference and criminal law in judicial courts. The aim is to sort out the specificity of different levels of discussion in European contexts, in order to understand how and to what extent can societal ends, rules of punishment, individual rights and multicultural approaches be assembled.