North Kuwait City by Francisco Anzolaivi (CC BY-SA 2.0) Kuwait, prior to May 2024, presented political scientists with a valuable case study of a hybrid regime within the Middle East: a monarchy under the al-Sabah ruling family held strong and indeed ultimate authority, yet an elected parliament also held significant power to effect policy changes.…
Image of Dunedin, New Zealand by Arvid Olson from Pixabay While Section 116 of the Australian Constitution appears textually to provide broad protection for freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), its interpretation by the High Court of Australia severely restricts its potential. The problem stems from the judicial conflation of two questions: whether FoRB has been violated and,…
The Village Lawyer by Pieter Brueghel (US-PD). 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 19(1) features full length articles in Spanish and English. Read Petri and Fox’s long-form essay on Constitutions Address of Religious Freedom here. See other…
Main chamber of Badshahi Mosque by User:Amjad.m (CC BY-SA 3.0) On January 16th, 2025, the government of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, demolished a historic Ahmadi mosque in the city of Daska. This mosque was built by Zafrullah Khan (1893-1985), Pakistan’s first foreign minister and one of the founding fathers of the country. This is…
Photo of Kisumu Municipal Hall by (WT-fr) Omondi (CC BY-SA 3.0) Kisumu is a cosmopolitan city that lies on the shores of Lake Victoria in Western Kenya. The city is inhabited by the majority Luo ethnic group and other Kenyan ethnic groups as well as Arabs and Asians East Africa who work in the city…
“Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks” by Ilya Repin (CC0) This article is part of our series on Transnational Christian Nationalism, and its impact on politics, the rule of law, and religious freedom. If you’d like to explore other articles in this series, click here. Russia counts more than 200 ethnic groups among its more than 140 million…
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…
Trinity Episcopal Church in Fredionia, New York via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0) This article is part of our “Religious Perspectives on Assisted Reproduction and Surrogacy” series. If you’d like to explore other articles in this series, click here. In February 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that, under state law, the loss of embryos during the process…
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…
Why ‘School Choice’ is a Strange Term: Educational Pluralism and International NormsAshley Rogers Berner The following is an excerpt from Ashley Rogers Berner’s new book, Educational Pluralism and Democracy, Reprinted with permission from Harvard Education Press. The United States needs a new conversation about education. Few areas of American life have experienced more conflict of…