silhouette of trees covered by fog by Paul Pastourmatzis on Unsplash. The United States Constitution, drafted in 1787, is a remarkable document. It is the oldest written and operating constitution in the world. There have been twenty-seven amendments to this text since its inception, from the original Bill of Rights, inclusive of the first ten…
This essay is adapted from Prof. Rafael Domingo’s address at the ICLARS (International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies) conference in Cordoba, Spain, on Sept. 19 2022. 1. Introduction Joseph E. David and John Witte, Jr. have both written books that deserve particular attention because of these two scholars’ massive contribution to the field of…
Bible, Church, Wedding (Pixabay) In the course of calling out anti-Semitism in American law – a very valid concern – Dr. Mia Brett’s recent Canopy Forum article argues that “Christian religious belief is the justification for many civil rights challenges we are seeing now.” Among them? Efforts to ban abortion, which “rest…on Christian religion.” Although legal justifications for prohibiting abortion “might pretend to have…
Yonghe Baofu Temple in Taipei, Taiwan by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash. One of the most notable characteristics of Taiwan’s approach to regulating religion is that the country has very few laws that directly intervene in religious affairs. Though some other Asian countries have religion-specific statutes that restrict interfaith marriage, regulate proselytization, or criminalize certain…
Picture by Mostafa Meraji (CC BY-SA 4.0) Contemporary efforts to regulate religious schools are unjust and bound to fail. Emerging legislation in Australia and the ongoing judicial controversy in the United States over the freedom of officials in faith-based schools to hire staff and admit students who share their values present serious challenges to educators in…
Picture by Pawal Czerwinski on Unsplash. Post-colonial Middle Eastern states have failed to achieve national secularization and homogenisation. Nation-building has been obstructed by prevalent transnational communal affiliations. In Lebanon, a power-sharing consociational arrangement preserved the autonomy of sectarian groups in a loose national union. A communitocracy is formed to protect group plurality against forced national…
Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. This article is part of our “Kennedy, Carson, and Dobbs: Law and Religion in Pressing Supreme Court Cases” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. For the past 60 years, American education has been governed by…
Picture by Danny D. on Unsplash. The Chinese government is waging an assault on religion. Millions of Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists are being subjected to arbitrary detention, forced labor, torture, and the destruction of religious buildings, books and artifacts. Can the international community do anything to stop these human rights violations and hold the perpetrators…
In 1925, on Day 7 of the infamous “Scopes Monkey Trial” (The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes), defense attorney Clarence Darrow interrogated prosecuting attorney William Jennings Bryan on the witness stand. His purpose was to discredit Bryan’s (and many Protestants’) view that the original author of Genesis understood the six days of creation…
Picture by Jace Grandinetti on Unsplash. Since 2017, the Russian government has attempted to “liquidate” Jehovah’s Witnesses as a religious organization. Branding Jehovah’s Witnesses an “extremist” group akin to a terrorist organization, the Russian government has confiscated the organization’s property. Witnesses have been beaten and jailed. This persecution has been condemned by the European Court…