The essay is intended as a kind of meta-analysis, from a mainly criminal law perspective, of
laicism and mutual tolerance principles in latemodern societies, getting beyond the formal approach to
these themes, which has traditionally been focused solely on the legal guarantee of an outward respect
by States and among citizens for minority faiths and beliefs. Liberal democracies, made aware of the
need – stemming also, ad J. Habermas puts it, by and «aberrant modernization» – to draw upon different
religious and moral beliefs in order to preserve their same normative and cultural foundations,
should then bolster up the «potential for truth» of citizens and thus foster a widespread «interest in
truth» rather than the idea of people sharing unique identities. A task which, in turn, requires as prerequisite
equality of rights, enhancement of human capabilities and social cooperation. Such active social
policy involvement even by liberal States has become more and more urgent in view of the recent
drift of criminal laws towards «zero tolerance» and «enemy oriented» policies, which, besides being
both the effect and a major further cause of the weakening of vital social bonds, are hardly contained
solely by the liberal rule of law and rather pose a powerful threat to a credible maintenance thereof.