The Interactions podcast, a podcast about the interactions between law and religion, is produced by the CSLR and distributed by Canopy Forum. New episodes now available.
Canopy Forum will be hosting a webinar on law, religion, and immigration on October 28th. Read our call for submissions and how to participate.
Our latest series include essays from the Australian Journal of Law and Religion, and topics ranging from Masking Religious Violations, Transnational Christian Nationalism, to IVF and ART, and more by scholars around the globe.
Indian Creek in Bears Ears National Monument by US Bureau of Land Management. This article is part of our “200 Years of Johnson v. M’Intosh: Law, Religion, and Native American Lands” series. If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. Mother Earth is the wellspring of indigenous culture, religion, and economic life.It forms…
Introduction As historians of religions, we are interested in myths, history, and creation narratives. The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823) includes all these elements. The Johnson decision illustrates one of the powerful ways in which Christianity has played a hegemonic role within American law and culture at the expense of…
Federal Anti-Indian Law: The Legal Entrapment of Indigenous PeoplesPeter d’Errico The following is an excerpt from Peter d’Errico’s Federal Anti-Indian Law: The Legal Entrapment of Indigenous Peoples (Bloomsbury, September 2022). 2023 is the bi-centennial year of Johnson v. McIntosh, the case that put ‘Christian discovery’ into US property law in a way that simultaneously created…
The Polish Contribution to the Global Legal Culture Franciszek Longchamps de Bérier and Rafael Domingo The following is excerpted from the Introduction of Law and Christianity in Poland: The Legacy of the Great Jurists, edited by Franciszek Longchamps de Bérier and Rafael Domingo and out now from Routledge. Poland stands out considerably on the international scene for its…
European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg with Flags by Cédric Puisney (CC BY 2.0). Last year, Dr. Mia Brett wrote on Canopy Forum about the ways in which American law has demonstrated insensitivity to Jewish religious liberty. I found much to criticize in her characterization of Christian involvement in the pro-life movement. But her…
Kashmir Valley in India by Kriti Kuhoo (CC BY-SA 4.0). A prominent Kashmiri journalist, Fahad Shah has completed one year in prison, where he is being held under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The charges against him are broad; they primarily accuse Shah’s work and magazine, The…
“Italian Parliament Building” by Marco Verch (CC BY 2.0). In a constitutional democracy, the right to freedom of religion implies that everyone can freely profess, practise, and propagate their faith in various forms, alone or in community with others, in public or private, in worship, teaching, and observance. With this in mind, the political-legal task…
One of the more contentious issues surrounding medical care concerns the conscience rights of health care professionals such as doctors, physician assistants, nurses, and the faith-based institutions in which they work. Controversy arises when individuals and/or their institutional policies refuse to comply with federal rules mandating that they violate their sincerely held religious beliefs, which…
Sacrifice and Conversion in the Early Modern Atlantic WorldMaria Berbara The following is an adapted excerpt from Sacrifice and Conversion in the Early Modern Atlantic World, edited by Maria Berbara. Available now from Harvard University Press. Sacrifice and Conversion in the Early Modern Atlantic World investigates the transit of texts, music, images, rituals and ideas…
Unbelievers: An Emotional History of DoubtAlec Ryrie Adapted from UNBELIEVERS: AN EMOTIONAL HISTORY OF DOUBT BY ALEC RYRIE, published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2019). Why,” the philosopher Charles Taylor asks, “was it virtually impossible not to believe in God in, say, 1500 in our Western society, while in 2000 many of…