Law Commons^™

Religious Accomodation, Religious Tradition, And Political Polarization, Marc O. Degirolami

Faculty Publications

A religious accommodation is an exemption from compliance with the law for some but not for others. One might therefore suppose that before granting an accommodation, courts would inquire about whether a legal interference with religious belief or practice is truly significant, if only to evaluate whether the risk of political polarization that attends accommodation is worth hazarding. But that is not the case: any assessment of the significance of a religious belief or practice within a claimant’s belief system is strictly forbidden.

Two arguments are pressed in support of this view: (1) courts have institutional reasons for acquiescing on …

Canon Law In New Dimensions, Dr. Miriam Theresa Rooney

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The International Secretariat Of Lawyers Of Pax Romana, Edward T. Fagan

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Lay Attorneys In Canonical Marriage Cases, Rt. Rev. Marion J. Reinhardt

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Vow Of Poverty And Its Civil Law Implications, Romaeus W. O'Brien, O. Carm.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Bingo, Religion And Adoption Laws, Motion Picture Censorship, Lottery Charges Against Sisters Dismissed, Comic Books

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Natural Law And The Lawyer's Search For A Philosophy Of Law, Edward F. Barrett

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Fraud And Error In The Canon Law Of Marriage, William F. Cahill, B.A., J.C.D.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Sacred Roman Rota Is Streamlined By Pope's New Decree, California D.A. Names More Nuns In Lottery Charges, Decry Encroachment Of Social Agencies Upon Functions Of The Courts, Natural Law Conference, Red Mass In Chicago

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Wearing Religious Garb, Bible Distribution In Public Schools, Zoning Restrictions On Churches, Rectory Held Tax Exempt, Religion And Adoption Laws, Court Permits Child To Choose Religion

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

A Man Born Again: Saint Thomas More, Charles J. Zinn, A.B., Ll.B., Ll.M., S.J.D.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Catholic Church On Separation And Civil Divorce, Eric F. Mackenzie, S.T.D., J.C.D.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Bingo, Morality And The Criminal Law, Frederick J. Ludwig, Dominic Hughes, O.P.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Free Exercise By Moonlight, Marc O. Degirolami

Faculty Publications

How is the current condition of religious free exercise, and religious accommodation in specific, best understood? What is the relationship of the two most important free exercise cases of the past half-century, Employment Division v. Smith and Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC? This essay explores four possible answers to these questions.

1. Smith and Hosanna-Tabor are the twin suns of religious accommodation under the Constitution. They are distinctively powerful approaches.

2. Hosanna-Tabor’s approach to constitutional free exercise is now more powerful than Smith’s. Smith has been eclipsed.

3. Hosanna-Tabor has shown itself to be feeble. It has …

Substantial Burdens Imply Central Beliefs, Marc O. Degirolami

Faculty Publications

This short piece reflects on the substantial burden inquiry in the law of religious accommodation. All legal regimes that are open to religious accommodation will want to know something about the nature of the burden on religion that the law imposes. This essay contends that to speak of a substantial burden on religious exercise is in effect to conceive of religion as a system — a group of interlocking beliefs and practices that together is greater than the sum of its parts. Some features of the system will be core features, while some will be peripheral. There is no getting …

Islamic Commercial Law And Social Justice: Shari'ah-Compliant Companies, Workers' Rights, And The Living Wage, Susan C. Hascall

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

The purpose of this Article is to examine workers' rights under Islamic law. Companies claiming to be in compliance with the Islamic Shari'ah must look beyond the forms of the transactions and the content of the products they sell. The companies and their Shari'ah advisors must also examine the treatment of the workers employed by the companies. If the workers are not being treated fairly, in accordance with Islamic law, the owners of these companies and their Shari'ah advisors should not claim that the companies and their products are Shari'ah-compliant. As this Article shows, the fair treatment of …

Constitutional Contraction: Religion And The Roberts Court, Marc O. Degirolami

Faculty Publications

This essay argues that the most salient feature to emerge in the first decade of the Roberts Court’s law and religion jurisprudence is the contraction of the constitutional law of religious freedom. It illustrates that contraction in three ways.

First, contraction of judicial review. Only once has the Roberts Court exercised the power of judicial review to strike down federal, state, or local legislation, policies, or practices on the ground that they violate the Free Exercise or Establishment Clauses. In this constitutional context the Court has been nearly uniformly deferential to government laws and policies. That distinguishes it from its …

State-Sponsored Religious Displays In The U.S. And Europe: Introduction, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

On June 22, 2012, the Center for Law and Religion proudly hosted, together with the Department of Law at Libera Universita Maria SS. Assunta (LUMSA), an international conference, State-Sponsored Religious Displays in the U.S. and Europe. Held at LUMSA's campus in Rome, Italy, the conference brought together leading American and European scholars, judges, and government officials to address the legality of public religious displays in different nations. Professor Silvio Ferrari of the University of Milan delivered the Conference Introduction. Panels included Cultural or Religious? Understanding Symbols in Public Places; The Lautsi Case and the Margin of Appreciation; and State-Sponsored Religious …

Religious Legal Theory Symposium: Introduction, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

On November 5, 2010, the St. John's Center for Law and Religion proudly hosted the annual Religious Legal Theory Conference. The event, now in its second year and to be shared among different universities, brought together scholars from around the world to discuss this year's theme, "Religion in Law, Law in Religion." The Center chose this theme in order to include papers on traditional church-state issues—“Religion in Law"—as well as papers addressing the role that law plays in various religious traditions—“Law in Religion." In addition, because contemporary law and religion scholarship has moved beyond strictly domestic-law questions, and takes an …

Elusive Equality: The Armenian Genocide And The Failure Of Ottoman Legal Reform, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

I would like to thank the organizers for inviting me to deliver some remarks this morning. By way of background, I am not a historian or genocide scholar, but a law professor with an interest in comparative law and religion. Comparative law and religion is a relatively new field. It explores how different legal regimes reflect, and influence, the relationships that religious communities have with the state and with each other. My recent work compares Islamic and Christian conceptions of law, a subject that has engaged Muslims and Christians since their first encounters in the seventh century.

When I approach …

Laïcité In Comparative Perspective (Conference): Foreword, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

On June 11, 2010, the Center for Law and Religion at St. John's University School of Law held its inaugural event, an academic conference at the University's Paris campus. "Laïcité in Comparative Perspective" brought together scholars from the United States and Europe to explore the French concept of laïcité and compare it with models of church-state relations in other countries, particularly the United States. Participants included Douglas Laycock (University of Virginia), who offered the Conference Introduction; Nathalie Caron (Université Paris-Est Créteil); Blandine Chelini-Pont (Université Paul Cézanne Aix-Marseille); Nina Crimm (St. John's University); Marc DeGirolami (St. John's University); Javier Martínez-Torrón Universidad …

Fiqh And Canons: Reflections On Islamic And Christian Jurisprudence, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

Although American scholarship has begun to address both Christian and Islamic jurisprudence in a serious way, virtually none of the literature attempts to compare the place of law in these two world religions. This Essay begins to compare Islamic and Christian conceptions of law and suggests some implications for contemporary debates about religious dispute settlement. Islam and Christianity are subtle and complex religions. Each has competing strands; each has evolved over millennia and expressed itself differently over time. Moreover, although systematic treatments of Islamic law are beginning to appear in English, much remains available only in languages, like Arabic, that …

The Problem Of Religious Learning, Marc O. Degirolami

Faculty Publications

The problem of religious learning is that religion—including the teaching about religion—must be separated from liberal public education, but that the two cannot be entirely separated if the aims of liberal public education are to be realized. It is a problem that has gone largely unexamined by courts, constitutional scholars, and other legal theorists. Though the U.S. Supreme Court has offered a few terse statements about the permissibility of teaching about religion in its Establishment Clause jurisprudence, and scholars frequently urge policies for or against such controversial subjects as Intelligent Design or graduation prayers, insufficient attention has been paid to …

Recoiling From Religion, Marc O. Degirolami

Faculty Publications

This is an essay reviewing Professor Marci A. Hamilton's book, GOD VS. THE GAVEL: RELIGION AND THE RULE OF LAW (Cambridge Univ. Press 2005).

Professor Marci Hamilton has written a forceful and obviously heartfelt book that should give pause to committed champions of religious free exercise. She argues convincingly that religious freedom is too often invoked to shield opprobrious and socially harmful activity, and she describes numerous examples of such abuses that make any civilized person's blood run cold. Her avowed aims are to debunk the “hazardous myth” that religion is “inherently and always good for society” and to increase …

Triptych: Sectarian Disputes, International Law, And Transnational Tribunals In Drinan's "Can God And Caesar Coexist?", Christopher J. Borgen

Faculty Publications

Can international law be used to address conflicts that arise out of questions of the freedom of religion? Modern international law was born of conflicts of politics and religion. The Treaty of Westphalia, the seed from which grew today's systems of international law and international relations, attempted to set out rules to end decades of religious strife and war across the European continent. The treaty replaced empires and feudal holdings with a system of sovereign states. But this was within a relatively narrow and historically interconnected community: Protestants and Catholics, yes, but Christians all. Europe was Christendom.

To what extent …