Religion Law Commons^™

Rectifying The Tilt: Equality Lessons From Religion, Disability, Sexual Orientation, And Transgender, Chai R. Feldblum

Maine Law Review

The joy and the challenge of being located in an academic setting is that I am also able to engage in forays (albeit intermittent forays) into scholarly analysis. Delivering this lecture, and publishing this piece, provides an excellent opportunity for me to engage in such a foray. This piece, then, is a scholarly reflection on my advocacy experiences. My goal is to use my experiences in advocacy as fertile soil from which to create, I hope, a lovely flower of theory and conceptual thought. Before setting out on this endeavor, however, I would like to offer two postulates. There are …

The Socialization Of Human Rights As An Inroad To Protect Sacred Space, Leonard Hammer

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Serious problems exist for cultural heritage protection, and these problems are even more serious when accounting for the protection of sacred space and holy places. The lack of effectiveness of the majority of existing international norms and institutions will be reviewed in this paper, which shall then turn to potential sources for entrenching protection of scared space within states.

The paper shall rely on the human right to freedom of religion or belief as the basis for upholding sacred space given an emerging broader understanding of the right within the human rights framework.

The paper shall principally focus on the …

There Are No Ordinary People: Christian Humanism And Christian Legal Thought, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

This short essay is a contribution to a volume celebrating a new casebook, "Christian Legal Thought: Materials and Cases", edited by Profs. Patrick McKinley Brennan and William S. Brewbaker.

Newsroom: Is Wall Between Church And State Crumbling? 10-10-2017, Diana Hassel

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Rwu First Amendment Blog: Diana Hassel's Blog: Is The Wall Between Church And State Crumbling? 10-07-2017, Diana Hassel

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

A Critique Of Pope Francis’S Laudato Si’, Nicholas Capaldi

Seattle University Law Review

This is a critique of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si’. The author summarizes and examines Pope Francis’s description of the problem, analysis of the roots of the problem, and proposed solution of the problem within the context of the Roman Catholic tradition. The author concludes that the encyclical abandons rigorous argument, as it lists complaints without offering substantive alternatives.

Social Justice And The American Law School Today: Since We Are Made For Love, Michael Kaufman

Seattle University Law Review

This Article is intended to facilitate that new dialogue by finding a series of profound provocations in the Pope’s teachings. First, the Pope provokes us to consider whether our existing education and economic systems are based on an incomplete understanding of human nature.5 The first section contends that the understanding that human beings are by nature competitive and consumptive wealth maximizers is not only contrary to the Pope’s teachings but also contrary to the latest research in the fields of neuroscience, neuro-psychology, cognitive psychology, educational psychology, economics, and behavioral economics. Second, the Pope provokes us to consider whether our existing …

Mercy Versus Fear, Or Where The Law On Migration Stands, Gilbert Paul Carrasco, Iryna Zaverukha

Seattle University Law Review

The theme of this Article contrasts the perspective of Papa Francisco on the subject of migration, juxtaposing his blueprint of mercy as the point of departure, with the oppositional resistance, which is based on various dimensions of fear. This perspective will be contextualized within the framework of both American immigration law and within the parameters of international human rights and transnational migration. Part I of this Article will consider the paradigm of mercy and fear in light of the various provisions of federal American immigration law in their historical context. It will recount many of the restrictive and nativist episodes …

Laudato Si’: Engaging Islamic Tradition And Implications For Legal Thought, Russell Powell

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay considers the 2015 papal encyclical Laudato si’s engagement with Islamic religious and legal traditions in order to identify shared ethical and jurisprudential commitments and their broader implications for law. By 2025, Muslims will constitute 30% of the population of the world, while Catholics will likely be between 15% and 20%. The history of interreligious conflict is long and enduring. In many cases, legal structures related to security and immigration have exacerbated these tensions, prompting uncertainty and instability.5 Laudato si’ is a strategic document, intended to address climate change, increasing economic inequity, and interreligious conflict by opening a space …

Where Morality And The Law Coincide: How Legal Obligations Of Bystanders May Be Informed By The Social Teachings Of Pope Francis, Amelia J. Uelmen

Seattle University Law Review

Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has offered to the world powerful signs of how we should aspire to treat each other as human beings, as brothers and sisters in the one human family. He has communicated his message and his teachings in myriad ways: through symbolic gestures; his presence and words at gatherings in our world’s most troubled places; brief messages, homilies and meditations; and official documents that continue the application of the principles of Catholic social teaching to contemporary social questions. What might these prophetic signs and statements mean for the dialogue between Catholic social thought …

The Teachings Of Pope Francis Symposium: Toward A Common Good For Our Common Home, Steven W. Bender

Seattle University Law Review

Prompted by the teachings of Pope Francis conveyed through such writings as the Evangelii gaudium and Laudato si’, the symposium—titled The Teachings of Pope Francis: Towards a Vision of Social Justice and Sustainable Capitalism?—brought an impressive and diverse array of interdisciplinary scholars to Seattle University School of Law in February 2017. Speakers included economists, law professors, and theologians with a wide array of expertise on daunting policy issues facing the Global South and North. Fittingly, a Jesuit law school with a diverse faculty hosted the symposium centering, critiquing, and expanding the teachings of the first Jesuit Pope. Many of our …

Social Justice And Capitalism: An Assessment Of The Teachings Of Pope Francis From A Law And Macroeconomics Perspective, Steven A. Ramirez

Seattle University Law Review

The first part of this Article will synthesize the key teachings of Pope Francis from his most important statements on economic structures and social justice and situate these teachings within contemporary economic realities and traditional social justice teachings. Part II of this Article will demonstrate that the Pope’s teachings on social justice fundamentally reflect the best learning from economists on how to sustain economic growth. Part III of this Article will show that nations that undertake policies to pursue the fundamental tenets of the Pope’s teachings (such as minimizing childhood poverty) also perform the best in achieving high human development …

A Cosmopolitan Church Confronts Right-Wing Populism, Vincent Rougeau

Seattle University Law Review

Are all human beings of equal moral worth? If so, does this proposition generate moral obligations to others that transcend national and cultural boundaries? Cosmopolitans would answer yes to each of these questions, as would Pope Francis and Catholic Social Teaching (CST). Given our interconnected economic system, a global perspective on justice is not only pragmatic but also morally essential. In recent years, however, what had been an emerging consensus centered on a cosmopolitan view of the reciprocal responsibilities of nations has been stifled by a rising tide of nationalism and right-wing populism. As a right-wing populist leader of a …

Soft Law And The Development Of Norms And Trust In Countering The Terrorist Threat: Engaging The Faith Communities In Post-9/11 Singapore, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

On July 6, 2010, Singapore's Internal Security Department (ISD) announced that a “self-radicalized,” full-time national serviceman had been detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) since April 4, 2010. Muhammad Fadil bin Abdul Hamid (Fadil), age 20, would be detained under the ISA for two years in the first instance. According to the media statement, Fadil had become convinced that “it was his religious duty to undertake armed jihad alongside fellow militants and strive for martyrdom.” According to local media reports, Fadil was the sixth known case of self-radicalization. Fadil was subsequently released on a Restriction Order on April 4, …

Wait, Who Are We Talking About Here? Searching For A Consistent Approach To Applying Rfra To Corporations, Steven J. Harrison

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

There is perhaps no idea in contemporary American law that is more publicly contentious than that of “corporate personhood.” Of all of the Supreme Court cases dealing with corporations and the corporate entity, few probably thought that a decision could surpass Citizens United in public controversy and divisiveness produced by the decision, which brought the legal fiction of the “corporate person” to the forefront of popular debate and discussion. Then came Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., which not only addressed whether corporations could “act” in a manner that seemed only a possibility for “real” or “natural” persons, which recalled …

The Free Exercise Of Religious Identity, Lauren Sudeall

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In recent years, a particular strain of argument has arisen in response to decisions by courts or the government to extend certain rights to others. Grounded in religious freedom, these arguments suggest that individuals have a right to operate businesses or conduct their professional roles in a manner that conforms to their religious identity. For example, as courts and legislatures have extended the right to marry to same-sex couples, court clerks have refused to issue marriage certificates to such couples, claiming that to do so would violate their religious beliefs. Similarly, corporations have refused, for reasons grounded in religious identity, …

Women And The Making Of The Tunisian Constitution, Rangita De Silva De Alwis, Anware Mnasri, Estee Ward

All Faculty Scholarship

This article attempts to glean from field interviews and secondary sources some of the sociopolitical complexities that underlay women’s engagement in Tunisia’s 2011-14 constitution-making process. Elucidating such complexities can provide further insight into how women’s engagement impacted the substance and enforceability of the constitution’s final text. We argue that, in spite of longstanding roadblocks to implement and enforce constitutional guarantees, the greater involvement of Tunisian women in the constitution drafting process did make a difference in the final gender provisions of Tunisia’s constitution. Although not all recommendations were adopted, Tunisian women were able to use an autochthonous process to edify …