Law Commons^™

Springtime For Freedom Of Religion Or Belief: Will Newly Democratic Arab States Guarantee International Human Rights Norms Or Perpetuate Their Violation?, Robert C. Blitt

Book Chapters

The Arab Spring has generated unprecedented and seismic political and social upheaval across the Arab world. The reasons for the outbreak of widespread and vociferous public protest are myriad, but generally understood as including long-simmering resentment of government corruption and repression, underwhelming economic development, chronic unemployment and poor respect for human rights, including the treatment of individuals and groups affiliated with political manifestations of Islam. Despite the initial drama surrounding the street rallies, two years on, the pace of change has grown fitful and uncertain.

The purpose of this chapter is to consider one narrow aspect of the Arab Spring. …

When Is Religious Speech Outrageous?: Snyder V. Phelps And The Limits Of Religious Advocacy, Jeffrey Shulman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Constitution affords great protection to religiously motivated speech. Religious liberty would mean little if it did not mean the right to profess and practice as well as to believe. But are there limits beyond which religious speech loses its constitutional shield? Would it violate the First Amendment to subject a religious entity to tort liability if its religious profession causes emotional distress? When is religious speech outrageous?

These are vexing questions, to say the least; but the United States Supreme Court will take them up next term—and it will do so in a factual context that has generated as …

Defamation And Vilification: Rights To Reputation, Free Speech And Freedom Of Religion At Common Law And Under Human Rights Laws, Neil J. Foster

Neil J Foster

For many years the common law of defamation, and statutory amendments to it, have protected a person’s reputation in the community, in the sense of the right not be denigrated in the eyes of others. While this involves a restriction on another powerful common law principle of “freedom of speech” (see the discussion in the High Court of Australia decision in Australian Broadcasting Corporation v O’Neill (2006) 227 CLR 57), a complex set of checks and balances have been developed to cope with this clash. The issues as to whether a person has a right not to be “vilified” (and …

Defamation Privilege In Internal Affairs Of Religious Societies, Howard A. Shelley Jr.

Cleveland State Law Review

Defamation privilege in religious societies is burdened in interpretation by the strong doctrine of separation of church and state coupled with the courts' reluctance to become involved in the internal affairs of private associations. That over the years this has resulted in establishment of a philosophy regarding defamation privilege in church controversies broader in scope than that available even to other private associations is apparent.

Clergymen's Interference With Private Rights, Robert B. Dunsmore

Cleveland State Law Review

If a clergyman is to be granted complete immunity to say whatever he believes, or to take any action which he believes best for his church or his congregation, then eventually either our concept of separation of church and state will be destroyed or else by the very weight of the immunities and the inequities resulting therefrom the qualified privilege of the clergyman will be destroyed. The real question is not whether such a privilege exists or should exist, but at what point does the interference with the rights of the individual become so great as to be actionable. This …