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Research Handbook on Law and Religion

Research Handbook on Law and Religion

Edited by Rex Ahdar, University of Otago, New Zealand, Visiting Professor, Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Adjunct Professor, School of Law, University of Notre Dame Australia at Sydney
Offering an interdisciplinary, international and philosophical perspective, this comprehensive Research Handbook explores both perennial and recent legal issues that concern the modern state and its interaction with religious communities and individuals.

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Extent: 512 pp
Hardback Price: $290.00 Web: $261.00
Publication Date: 2018
ISBN: 978 1 78811 246 8
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Offering an interdisciplinary, international and philosophical perspective, this comprehensive Research Handbook explores both perennial and recent legal issues that concern the modern state and its interaction with religious communities and individuals.

Providing in-depth, original analysis the book includes studies of a wide array of nation states, such as India and Turkey, which each have their own complex issues centred on law, religion and the interactions between the two. Longstanding issues of religious liberty are explored such as the right of conscientious objection, religious confession privilege and the wearing of religious apparel. The contested meanings of the secular state and religious neutrality are revisited from different perspectives and the reality of the international human rights protections for religious freedom are analysed.

Timely and astute, this discerning Research Handbook will be a valuable resource for both academics and researchers interested in the many topics surrounding law and religion. Lawyers and practitioners will also appreciate the clarity with which the rights of religious liberty, and the challenges in making these compatible with state law, are presented.

Critical Acclaim

‘Rex Ahdar has gathered together 21 expert chapters covering a wide range of questions in the field. In his foreword, John Witte, Jr rightly characterizes these essays as ‘a judicious and delicious sampling’ (xviii). Without exception, they are well-written, thought-provoking and authoritative.’
– Julian Rivers, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion

‘Over the course of the last generation, the study of ‘law and religion’ has exploded in breadth, subtlety and significance. This Research Handbook provides its readers with a rich, varied, and sometimes provocative introduction to the field. Expert chapters not only shed new light on familiar topics, they also identify further avenues for fruitful scholarship. One is left with the sense that the most significant work still lies ahead – and also the intellectual tools to face that challenge.’
– Julian Rivers, University of Bristol Law School, UK

‘The authors who have contributed so ably to this excellent volume are to be congratulated on scholarship of the highest quality, which treats a wide and rich range of issues at the centre of the field of law and religion today. Their contribution here will be of enormous value to all those who teach, study, and practise in this rapidly developing and important sphere of life.’
– Norman Doe, Cardiff University, UK

Contributors

Contributors: R. Ahdar, F. Ahmed, R. Albert, R. Barker, B.L. Berger, J.E. Buckingham, J. Burnside, P. Dane, J. Harrison, M.A. Helfand, M. Hill, M. Kiviorg, A. Koppelman, I. Leigh, J.L. Neo, Y. Roznai, R. Sandberg, S.D. Smith, P.M. Taylor, H.-M. ten Napel, A.K. Thompson, F. Venter

Contents

Contents:

Foreword
John Witte, Jr

Part I Law and Religion
1. Navigating Law and Religion: Familiar Waterways, Rivers Less Travelled and Uncharted Seas
Rex Ahdar

2. The Sociological Dimension of Law and Religion
Russell Sandberg

Part II Jurisprudential Themes
3. Equality, Religion, and Nihilism
Steve D Smith

4. Jeremy Bentham and the Problem of the Authority of Biblical Law
Jonathan Burnside

5. Dworkin’s Religion and the End of Religious Liberty
Joel Harrison

6. What Kind of Human Right is Religious Liberty?
Andrew Koppelman

Part III Religion-State Relations
7. Establishment and Encounter
Perry Dane

8. Religion, Secularism and Limitations on Constitutional Amendment
Richard Albert and Yaniv Roznai

9. Regulation of Religious Communities in a Multicultural Polity
Jaclyn L Neo

10. Liberal Constitutionalism and the Unsettling of the Secular
Benjamin L Berger

11. The Boundaries of Faith-Based Organizations in Europe
Hans-Martien ten Napel

12. Enforcing Religious Law
Farrah Ahmed

Part IV Adjudicating Religion
13. When Judges are Theologians: Adjudicating Religious Questions
Michael A. Helfand

14. The Justiciability and Adjudication of Religious Disputes
Francois Venter

Part V International Perspectives
15. Controversial Doctrine: The Relevance of Religious Content in the Supervisory Role of International Human Rights Bodies
Paul M Taylor

16. Dangers of the Changing Narrative of Human Rights: Why Democracy and Security Need Religious Freedom
Merilin Kiviorg

Part VI Freedom of Religion Issues
17. Freedom of Religion and the Rise of Secularism: Struggles in the British Workplace
Mark Hill QC

18. The Legal Recognition of Freedom of Conscience as Conscientious Objection: Familiar Problems and New Lessons
Ian Leigh

19. Of Burqas (and Niqabs) in Courtrooms: The Neglected Women’s Voice
Renae Barker

20. Trinity Western University’s Law School: Reconciling Rights
Janet Epp Buckingham

21. The Persistence of Religious Confession Privilege
A Keith Thompson

Bibliography

Index