Law Commons^™

Defining Religion, James M. Donovan

James M. Donovan

The charge of this essay was to review definitional trends of "religion." Four major types were discussed: content, behavior, mental, and functional. While each type has considerations that suggest its relevance, all are incomplete when examined in isolation. Consequently, two approaches combining these types were briefly discussed: conjunctive and generative. Judging the former inferior to the latter, it was suggested that only the functional definitions are capable of being truly generative. The most inclusive definition of religion, therefore, will be one that is generative functional. Clues as to what such a definition might look like are found first in the …

A Defining Faith: "True" Religion And The Establishment Clause, Jeffrey Shulman

ExpressO

This essay examines two trends in modern church-state law. Parts I and II review the history of the Supreme Court's Establishment Clause cases. It is a history that can best be understood as a series of jurisprudential maneuvers by which the Court has sought to make room for religion in civic life. The accommodations made by the Court to religious belief and conduct have, in effect, allowed for discrimination against non-religion, and have edged the court toward a nonpreferentialist perspective on disestablishment. But the Court’s accommodating attitude amounts to more than a preference for the many varieties of religious experience. …

Racism As "The Nation's Crucial Sin": Theology And Derrick Bell , George H. Taylor

ExpressO

The Article probes a paradox that lies at the heart of the work of critical race scholar Derrick Bell. Bell claims on the one hand that racism is permanent, and yet on the other he argues that the fight against racism is both necessary and meaningful. Although Bell’s thesis of racism’s permanence has been criticized for rendering action for racial justice unavailing, the Article advances an understanding of Bell that supports and defends the integrity of his paradox. The Article draws upon the work of Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and Niebuhr’s paradox that social action is both necessary and meaningful …

The Link Between Poverty And Violent Conflict, J. Brian Atwood

New England Journal of Public Policy

The threat to the international system from the many forms of violent conflict, terrorism being the most prominent among them, is greater today than it was at the end of the twentieth century. This escalation of global conflict has been attributed to the breakup of the Soviet State, increasing ethnic tensions, weak governance at both the nation-state and international levels, and the rise of religious extremism. Each of these factors contributes to instability and the social tensions that lead to violence. It will be posited here that there is also a significant link between poverty and violent conflict, one that …

Secularism's Laws: State Blaine Amendments And Religious Persecution, Kyle Duncan

ExpressO

The State Blaine Amendments are provisions in thirty-seven state constitutions that restrict persons’ and organizations’ access to public benefits on religious grounds. They arose largely in the mid- to late-1800s in response to bitter strife between an established Protestant majority and a growing Catholic minority that sought equal access to public funding for Catholic schools. After the failure to pass a federal constitutional amendment—the "Blaine Amendment"—that would have sealed off public school funds from "sectarian" institutions, similar provisions proliferated in state constitutions. These "State Blaines" have often been interpreted, under their plain terms, as erecting religion-sensitive barriers to the flow …

Silence Of The Lambs: Are States Attempting To Establish Religion In Public Schools?, Linda D.W. Lam

Vanderbilt Law Review

The proper role of religion in public schools has been a topic of bitter debate for many years. While one group of individuals believes that there should be a complete separation of church and state, another group believes that religion should have an integral place in public education. Although both groups have looked to the circumstances surrounding the enactment of the First Amendment to support their respective positions, each has been unable to find clear, definitive support regarding the appropriate relationship between religion and public schools, as there was no public education system at that time. One major issue that …

Invisible Foundations: Science, Democracy, And Faith Among The Pragmatists, Patrick J. Deneen

Pragmatism, Law and Governmentality

Today science is almost universally regarded as an ally of democracy. Religion - once viewed by Tocqueville as the great support of democratic mores, in contrast to the materialism of then-contemporary atheists who threatened to undermine democratic commitments - is now viewed by many as antithetical to the openness and provisionality that marks both science and democracy. As framed by the neo-pragmatist Richard Rorty, religion is a "conversation-stopper," the very definition of anti-democratic, anti-scientific anti-pragmatism.

Whereas a pragmatic form of faith, notably "democratic faith," secures belief in an ever improving future, the "politics of skepticism" is reinforced by the initial …

The Utility Of An International Legal Approach To The Jerusalem Question, Davinia Aziz

Davinia Aziz

International law has not acquitted itself well when invoked to assist in the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Imprecisely-articulated claims and interests framed in terms of charges and counter-charges of terrorism, respective rights to self-determination, sovereignty and illegal uses of force fail to capture the complexity of reality. Juxtaposing international law's stencil-like approach to this very complex reality illuminates the law's limitations. The law is inhibited by a restricted recognition of sources of legitimacy, rooted in the ethnocentric secularism of the American and Western European powers controlling its development. This article argues that despite its apparent shortcomings, international law is …

The Liberal Polity And Illiberalism In Religious Traditions, Paul E. Salamanca

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

It is in the nature of religious traditions to be somewhat illiberal. Indeed, a religion that does not require its adherents to affirm at least some belief is probably a logical impossibility. Christians, for example, must believe something about the nature of Christ. Even Unitarians, who advocate tolerance of all religions, must affirm a belief in tolerance.

Recently, and largely because of the events of September 11, 2001, enhanced attention has been paid to certain potentially illiberal aspects of Islam in the United States. The journalist Daniel Pipes, for example, has written about certain Moslem Americans who, according to his …

Public Funding For Theological Training Under The Free Exercise Clause: Pragmatic Implications And Theoretical Questions Posed To The Supreme Court In Locke V. Davey, Katie Axtell

Seattle University Law Review

Part II of this Note presents the factual background and procedural history of Davey v. Locke. Part III discusses the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Section A provides a basic background on the Supreme Court's free exercise jurisprudence. Section B applies the Court's precedent to Davey, and concludes that the Ninth Circuit sidestepped a true "prohibition" analysis. Sections A, B, and C of Part IV discuss the differing neutrality examinations within free exercise, free speech, and establishment jurisprudence, respectively. Section D discusses the overlapping application of neutrality criteria in establishment and free speech funding cases. Section E concludes …

Freedom And Religious Tolerance In Europe, Peter Juviler

Michigan Journal of International Law

Review of Protecting the Human Rights of Religious Minorities in Eastern Europe (Peter Danchin & Elizabeth Cole eds.)

"Forgive Me Victim For I Have Sinned": Why Repentance And The Criminal Justice System Do Not Mix - A Lesson From Jewish Law, Cheryl G. Bader

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This essay will critique the Georgia Justice Project's encouragement of confessions in the context of the secular American justice system via comparison with the treatment of confessions under ancient Jewish law. Specifically, this essay posits that the absolute prohibition on the use of confessions in a legal system firmly rooted in religious values recognizes the danger inherent in combining the act of speaking of one's sins for religious penance with the use of such confessions in the criminal adjudication process. The Jewish legal system avoids these inherent dangers by completely devaluing the accused's confession. The GJP, in contrast, merges the …

Religious Values, Legal Ethics, And Poverty Law: A Response To Thomas Shaffer, Stephen Wizner

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Stephen Wizner provides a response to Thomas Shaffer's article on his pursuit of social justice through using religious figures as role models. Wizner argues that Shaffer is clearly right in asserting that there is much in the prophetic literature, and, indeed, in the entire Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, that could serve as a moral impetus for social justice lawyering. One can find considerable support for Shaffer's religious thesis in the texts that he cites, and in the words of the prophets he looks to as role models. Nevertheless, Wizner presents a skeptical response to Professor Shaffer's thoughtful essay. …

Gender Bias In The Roman Catholic Church: Why Can't Women Be Priests?, Cheryl Y. Haskins

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

No Other Gods: Answering The Call Of Faith In The Practice Of Law, Howard Lesnick

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Critical Familism, Civil Society, And The Law, Don Browning

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fundamentalism From The Perspective Of Liberal Tolerance, Leslie C. Griffin

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Biblical Prophets As Lawyers For The Poor, Thomas L. Shaffer

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Lawyers practicing poverty law often lack mentors and role models. This author discusses how biblical figures, who served poor people, could be mentors and role models for lawyers practicing poverty law. Prophets, and particularly prophets-as-lawyers, redefine power relationships. Shaffer discusses his personal journey through out his career in using religious guidance to help him better understand his career. He also discuss his teachings to his law students of the value of learning from prophets in their legal careers.

Owning Enlightenment: Proprietary Spirituality In The New Age Marketplace, Walter Effross

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Quo Vadis: The Continuing Metamorphosis Of The Establishment Clause Toward Realistic Substantive Neutrality, Paul E. Salamanca

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

For years, the rhetoric of substantive neutrality has dominated interpretation of the Establishment Clause. Under this approach, courts and commentators purport to ask whether a public policy under scrutiny is likely to affect religious choices in an unacceptable way. In fact, so broadly has this approach been taken that both separationists and accommodationists resort to it freely, although with radically differing perceptions as to when policy becomes unacceptable. Arguably, however, adherents to this approach have paid insufficient attention to religious behavior per se. Had they paid sufficient attention to this phenomenon, they would have been forced to acknowledge that little …

Addressing Fundamentalism By Legal And Spiritual Means, Dan Wessner

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Religion and Humane Global Governance by Richard A. Falk. New York: Palgrave, 2001. 191 pp.

Gender and Human Rights in Islam and International Law: Equal before Allah, Unequal before Man? by Shaheen Sardar Ali. The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2000. 358 pp.

Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women edited by Courtney W. Howland. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999. 326 pp.

The Islamic Quest for Democracy, Pluralism, and Human Rights by Ahmad S. Moussalli. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001. 226 pp.

Darwin, Design, And Disestablishment: Teaching The Evolution Controversy In Public Schools, Jay D. Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

The controversy over teaching evolution in public schools is once again hot news. Ever since the Supreme Court decided in 1987 that Louisiana could not constitutionally require teachers to give equal time to teaching creation science and evolution, critics of evolution have adopted a variety of new strategies to change the way in which public schools present the subject to their students. These strategies have included teaching evolution as a "theory" rather than as a fact, disclaiming the truth of evolutionary theory, teaching arguments against evolution, teaching the allegedly nontheistic theory of intelligent design instead of creationism, removing evolution from …

Introduction To The Conference On Fundamentalisms, Equalities, And The Challenge To Tolerance In A Post-9/11 Environment, Richard H. Weisberg

Articles

No abstract provided.

Law And Religion In Post-Communist Europe, Silvio Ferrari, W. Durham, Elizabeth Clark

Elizabeth A. Clark

No abstract provided.

A Positive Rights Interpretation Of The Establishment Clause, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.