Domen över huvudduken: ur ett systemteoretiskt perspektiv

In May 2009, the Danish government passed a bill concerning judges’ usage of religious symbols in court. This hitherto unproblematic issue from the point of view of the courts is thus politicized. Using the social systems theory of German scholar Niklas Luhmann, this paper will present an answer to why and how the Danish political system tries to influence religion through legislation. By showing the government's official political statements in the media and in the Parliament, it is asserted that the bill, the clothing guidelines in Danish courts that predated the bill, and the ensuing debate on related clothing items such as burqas and niqabs are all examples of how functionally differentiated social systems are forced to react to other instances of systemic differentiation with the increasing impetus of globalization.