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Full-Text Articles in Law
Commerce, Religion, And The Rule Of Law, Nathan B. Oman
Commerce, Religion, And The Rule Of Law, Nathan B. Oman
Faculty Publications
The rule of law and religion can act as commercial substitutes. Both can create the trust required for material prosperity. The rule of law simplifies social interactions, turning people into formal legal agents and generating a map of society that the state can observe and control, thus credibly committing to the enforcement of the legal rights demanded by impersonal markets. Religion, in contrast, embraces complex social identities. Within these communities, economic actors can monitor and sanction misbehavior. Both approaches have benefits and problems. The rule of law allows for trade among strangers, fostering peaceful pluralism. However, law breeds what Montesquieu …
Fiqh And Canons: Reflections On Islamic And Christian Jurisprudence, Mark L. Movsesian
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 …