Image by Talpa from Pixabay In 2017, Christopher Wilson, a resident of Maui, Hawaiʻi, was charged by the state for possession of an unregistered pistol, a violation of state statute. He moved to dismiss the charges, arguing that the statutes unconstitutionally infringed on his right to keep and bear arms under both the Hawaiʻi Constitution…
Image by Neidy Girado from Pixabay (license). The following essay is reprinted and adapted on Canopy Forum in collaboration with the journal Derecho en Sociedad, a biannual electronic publication that is free and open access. Their issue 18(2) features full length articles in Spanish and English. Read Osorio’s long-form essay on places of worship in Colombia here. The following…
Illustration commissioned for this project by Tahira Rifath Fifty-three nations (35 Muslim-majority, 18 Muslim-minority) formally integrate shari‘a-based Muslim Family Laws (MFLs) into their domestic legal systems and enforce them through state-run (religious or civil) courts adjudicating familial disputes among their Muslim citizens. State-enforced MFLs often violate people’s fundamental rights and liberties. For example, in many…
Santuario de Las Lajas, Ipiales, Colombia by Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) The following essay is reprinted and adapted on Canopy Forum in collaboration with the journal Derecho en Sociedad, a biannual electronic publication that is free and open access. Their issue 18(2) features full length articles in Spanish and English. Read Sandoval’s long-form essay on Religious Freedom in…
Image of Palacio del Centro Asturiano, Havana, Cuba by Carol M. Highsmith (CC0) The following essay is reprinted and adapted on Canopy Forum in collaboration with the journal Derecho en Sociedad, a biannual electronic publication that is free and open access. Their issue 18(2) features full length articles in Spanish and English. Read Flores’ long-form essay on the Cuban…
Makoko Lagos, Nigeria by Collins Okoh (CC BY-SA 4.0) A longstanding debate in the social sciences concerns whether violence in civil conflicts targets specific groups or is indiscriminate. Security scholar Stathis Kalyvas, in his 2006 seminal book The Logic of Violence in Civil War, argues that indiscriminate violence is less likely when actors have high…
St. Isidore of Seville (1655) depicted by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (CC0). Introduction As I discussed previously, a controversy arose on June 5, 2023, when Oklahoma’s Statewide Virtual Charter School Board authorized the creation of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. Named after the patron saint of the internet, and intended to operate under the leadership of…
Image of Ten Commandments outside of Stephens County Courthouse from WikiMedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). It’s already back to school time, and while students in Louisiana and Oklahoma may notice that the Ten Commandments and Bible are now in their classrooms and curricula, religion has always been part of the structure of public schools in the…
Photo of Supreme Court of Pakistan from Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Pakistan’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Act (XX of 2017) represents a significant step towards increasing female participation within the legal sphere. With specific provisions on female representation in court-mandated mediation and ADR centers, this Act moves Pakistan towards a more inclusive and equitable legal…
Photo of Aleksandr Dugin on Wikimedia by Mahdieh Gaforian (CC BY-SA 4.0). Alexandr Dugin is a Russian ultranationalist political theorist and television commentator. He currently serves as the head of the newly established “Ivan Ilyin Higher School of Politics” (HSP) at the Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH) in Moscow. In recent years, he has been…