Framing Tax Enforcement Against the Poor Through Catholic Social Teaching W. Edward Afield What makes for just tax policy? As Professor Hamill observes in her Canopy Forum piece on the estate tax, tax policy “is ultimately a justice-based ethical issue” that naturally connects to the values underlying a citizen’s perception of justice. Law and religion…
The Gita for a Global World: Ethical Action in an Age of Flux Rohit Chopra Reading the Gita in a Global World An Introduction by Rohit Chopra It is a sign of the universal relevance and enduringly enigmatic character of a book when it speaks compellingly to opposing concerns, when it is invoked in the…
Photo by Artem Sapegin on Unsplash. This article is part of our “What’s Wrong with Rights?” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. First of all, let me express my gratitude to Professor Witte for having taken the trouble to comment at some length on my book. What he has…
The Innocence of Pontius Pilate by David Lloyd Dusenbury An overview by the author, with parts adapted from the book, published with the permission of Hurst and Oxford University Press. Ecce Homo: Pilate and Jesus in the History of Secularity In a beautiful volume of lectures and conversations, Julia Kristeva suggests that “the ‘genius of…
Photo by Xavier Coiffic on Unsplash. Religion clause jurisprudence is one of the more convoluted areas of constitutional law. The Supreme Court has articulated at least six different standards in recent years for determining whether a state has violated the First Amendment’s prohibition against “establishment of religion.” The Court’s approach to free exercise cases is…
Photo by Janko Ferlic on Unsplash. In the summer of 2021, the French National Assembly and Senate passed the so-called “anti-separatism” bill, signed into law by Emanuel Macron, ostensibly to protect laïcité, the French secularist doctrine designed to ensure government neutrality toward religion. The new law increases scrutiny by the government of religious associations, bars…
Photo by Rachel Moore on Unsplash. What does it mean to call a law generally applicable? The question is timely because of a confluence between the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision this summer in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia and ongoing litigation over COVID-19 prevention measures, especially vaccination mandates. In Fulton, the Court gestured toward two…
Photo by Tom Hoppe on Unsplash. In the Fall of 2021, Dr. Philip L. Reynolds – a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Medieval Christianity, and Aquinas Professor of Historical Theology at Candler School of Theology – retired. For almost four decades, Reynolds has…
Photo by Mikael Kristenson on Unsplash. This is Part II of Laura Ford’s essay on Social Identity Pietism and the First Amendment Balance. The First Amendment Balance & Social Peace In a careful historical study of American cultural and jurisprudential developments relating to First Amendment religious freedom, Philip Hamburger has persuasively argued that the U.S.…
Photo by Marko Beljan on Unsplash. Over the last three decades of work in the fields of law, religion, and human rights, I have been privileged to work with fellow scholars with a range of views on what is known in the United States as “religious freedom.” In my work with scholars outside the U.S.,…