Law Commons^™

The History Of Religious Hiring At American Catholic Law Schools, John M. Breen, Lee J. Strang

Touro Law Review

A mission-driven institution requires personnel who are competent for the realization of the mission. The following article examines the practice of Catholic law schools hiring Catholics as law professors throughout the over 150-year history of Catholic legal education in the United States. This history shows that Catholic law schools alternately sought to hire Catholics as law professors or to hire individuals without regard to their religious affiliation as these schools’ self-understanding of mission changed over time.

Reaching Out Through The Universal: The Powerful And Positive Role Of A Jesuit Catholic Law School On The Secular Line, Judith A. Mcmorrow

Touro Law Review

There are multiple ways in which Catholic law schools can provide an education that supports and reflects a Catholic vision. Some schools align more closely to an orthodox view in which text and doctrine are the starting lens. Catholic law schools closer to the secular end of the spectrum play a powerful role by actively building bridges with the secular world. These schools, either implicitly or explicitly, start with values framed in more universal terms -- a moral or ethical worldview that can implement the common good in the secular world. A Catholic law school that emphasizes the universal generally …

Is This A Christian Nation?: Virtual Symposium September 25, 2020, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Book Review Essay: Jewish And American Law: A Comparative Study. (Vols. 1 And 2) By Samuel J. Levine, Marie A. Failinger

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The “Step-Child Of Scholarly Investigation”: Preliminary Observations About The Origins Of Academic Jewish Law Scholarship, David Hollander

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Political Hebraism And Jewish Law To The Comparative Paradigm, Amos Israel-Vleeschhouwer

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The Secular: Religion, Ethics And Science In Food Regulation, Richard Mohr

Richard Mohr

This paper explores some issues at the intersection of regulation and religion, as they apply to food. It reports on a work in progress examining the regulations and values that affect choices at food and drink outlets in an inner suburban street in Sydney.

It is part of a larger projected study of food as a central social, material and religious concern. In it we are exploring questions around community relations in a culturally and religiously diverse society. Here I focus on the ways religious, ethical and scientific considerations interact with regulatory regimes, whether those of government, industry, or religious …

A Challenge To Bleached Out Professional Identity: How Jewish Was Justice Louis D. Brandeis?, Russell G. Pearce, Adam B. Winer, Emily Jenab

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Structural Models Of Religion And State In Jewish And Democratic Political Thought: Inevitable Contradiction? The Challenge For Israel, Elazar Nachalon

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court, Kings County, Wilson V. Kilkenny, James Dougherty

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bruce Ledewitz, American Religious Democracy: Coming To Terms With The End Of Secular Politics, Thomas A. Schweitzer

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Does Religion Have A Role In Criminal Sentencing?, Jack B. Weinstein

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Shall Businesses Profit If Their Owners Lose Their Souls? Examining Whether Closely Held Corporations May Seek Exemptions From The Contraceptive Mandate, Christopher S. Ross

Fordham Law Review

May for–profit, secular corporations claim the protection of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)?

This question is central to numerous lawsuits against the federal government in which business owners argue that certain regulations under the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act substantially burden the exercise of their religion. This Note examines the threshold hurdle that for–profit business owners must clear to successfully state a claim under RFRA: the question of whether the businesses are “persons” the statute protects. This is an issue of first impression for the U.S. Supreme Court, and it has split the circuit courts of appeal.

First, …

A Secular Australia? Ideas, Politics And The Search For Moral Order In Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Century Australia, Gregory Melleuish

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This article argues that the relationship between the religious and the secular in Australia is complex and that there has been no simple transition from a religious society to a secular one. It argues that the emergence of apparently secular moral orders in the second half of the nineteenth century involved what Steven D. Smith has termed the 'smuggling in' of ideas and beliefs which are religious in nature. This can be seen clearly in the economic debates of the second half of the nineteenth century in Australia in which a Free Trade based on an optimistic natural theology battled …

Some Thoughts On Sanford Levinson’S “Divided Loyalties: The Problem Of 'Dual Sovereignty' And Constitutional Faith”, David Novak

Touro Law Review

Analyzes the two divided loyalties that Levinson faces in "Divided Loyalties: The Problem of 'Dual Sovereignty' and Constitutional Faith."

Blasphemy In A Secular State: Some Reflections, Belachew M. Fikre

Belachew M Fikre

Anti-blasphemy laws have endured criticism in light of the modern, secular and democratic state system of our time. For example, Ethiopia’s criminal law provisions on blasphemous utterances, as well as on outrage to religious peace and feeling, have been maintained unaltered since they were enacted in 1957. However, the shift observed within the international human rights discourse tends to consider anti-blasphemy laws as going against freedom of expression. The recent Human Rights Committee General Comment No. 34 calls for a restrictive application of these laws for the full realisation of many of the rights within the International Covenant on Civil …

The Constitutional Issues Surrounding The Science-Religion Conflict In Public Schools: The Anti-Evolution Controversy, Michael M. Greenburg

Pepperdine Law Review

Since the infamous Scopes trial the matter of the constitutional validity of the "anti-evolution" laws has plagued both legal scholars and school administrators. The courts have generally invalidated legislation which bans outright the teaching of evolution in public schools, but with the advent of the "balanced treatment" acts, a revival of this litigation has begun. The author examines the constitutional analysis utilized by the courts in dealing with the "anti-evolution" and "balanced treatment" acts and provides an historical perspective of the first amendment to question the Court's response to the issue.

Seeing Through The Secular Illusion, I Benson

Law Papers and Journal Articles

It is often said that we live in a ‘secular’ age and that the principles of ‘secularism’ lead to a ‘neutral’ public sphere. The central terms ‘secular’ and ‘secularism’ however, though they are often used are rarely examined. Related terms, relevant to their meaning, such as ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ are also seldom defined or compared alongside each other to evaluate how well they comply with principles of justice. In this paper, a development of others on similar themes, Professor Benson examines various definitions alongside contemporary topics and legal decisions to argue that an open public sphere requires re-thinking how many …

Rethinking The Secular: Religion, Ethics And Science In Food Regulation, Richard Mohr

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper explores some issues at the intersection of regulation and religion, as they apply to food. It reports on a work in progress examining the regulations and values that affect choices at food and drink outlets in an inner suburban street in Sydney.

It is part of a larger projected study of food as a central social, material and religious concern. In it we are exploring questions around community relations in a culturally and religiously diverse society. Here I focus on the ways religious, ethical and scientific considerations interact with regulatory regimes, whether those of government, industry, or religious …

Jewish Law Courts In America: Lessons Offered To Sharia Courts By The Beth Din Of America Precedent, Michael J. Broyde

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Analysis Of The Jewish Law And The Secular Perspective On International Human Rights (Part Of The Article, “Human Rights In The Bible, An Exchange Of Ideas”)., Richard Klein, Chaim Povarsky

Richard Daniel Klein

No abstract provided.

Bruce Ledewitz, American Religious Democracy: Coming To Terms With The End Of Secular Politics, Thomas A. Schweitzer

Thomas A. Schweitzer

No abstract provided.

Salazar V. Buono: Sacred Symbolism And The Secular State, Ian C. Bartrum

Scholarly Works

This Colloquy piece comments on some doctrinal and theoretical implications of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Salazar v. Buono.

Judges And Religious-Based Reasoning, David Blaikie, Diana Ginn

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Is it ever acceptable for a judge in a secular liberal democracy to rely on, and explicitly refer to, religious-based reasoning in reaching a decision? While it is unlikely that many Canadian judges will be seized with the desire to include religious-based reasoning in their judgments, we raise this issue because it allows us to examine the appropriate role of religious-based discourse in a challenging context, where arguments about unconstitutionality are strongest. In a previous article, we concluded that there are no ethical impediments to citizens using such discourse in discussing public affairs. We argued that it is no less …

Whither Secular Bear: The Russian Orthodox Church’S Strengthening Influence On Russia's Domestic And Foreign Policy, Robert C. Blitt

Scholarly Works

As 2012 presidential elections in Russia draw near, evidence points to a collapse in that country’s constitutional obligation of secularism and state-church separation. Although early signs of this phenomenon can be traced back to the Yeltsin era, the Putin and Medvedev presidencies have dealt a fatal blow to secular state policy manifested both at home and abroad, as well as to Russia’s constitutional human rights principles including nondiscrimination and equality of religious beliefs.

The first part of this article argues that leadership changes in the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) have triggered an unprecedented deepening of state-ROC …

Russia’S 'Orthodox' Foreign Policy: The Growing Influence Of The Russian Orthodox Church In Shaping Russia’S Policies Abroad, Robert C. Blitt

Scholarly Works

The government of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) - the country’s predominant religious group - recently underwent back-to-back changes in each institution’s respective leadership. This coincidence of timing has afforded a unique opportunity to reexamine the status of constitutional secularism and church-state relations in the Russian Federation.

In the short space of two years, the partnership of President Dmitri Medvedev and Patriarch Kirill has further entrenched a discriminatory three-tiered status system for religious groups and - perhaps more significantly - has generated multiple new channels of influence for the ROC in Russian social and political life, including handing …

One New President, One New Patriarch And A Generous Disregard For The Constitution: A Recipe For The Continuing Decline Of Secular Russia, Robert C. Blitt

Scholarly Works

The government of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) - the country’s predominant religious group - recently underwent back-to-back changes in each institution’s respective leadership. This coincidence of timing affords a unique opportunity to reassess the status of constitutional secularism and church–state relations in the Russian Federation.

Following a discussion of the presidential and patriarchal elections that occurred between March 2008 and January 2009, the Article surveys recent developments in Russia as they relate to the nation’s constitutional obligations. In the face of this analysis, the Article argues that the government and the ROC alike continue to willfully undermine …

Fatwas: Their Role In Contemporary Secular Australia, Nadirsyah Hosen, Ann Black

Faculty of Law - Papers (Archive)

In Australia, there has been confusion and misunderstanding surrounding the term 'fatwa'. This goes both to its meaning and also to the role fatwas fulfil for Muslims, whether in Australia or in other parts of the world. This paper seeks to address both of these issues, first by demystifying fatwa through exploration of the distinctive place the have in Islamic jurisprudence, and second by identifying the methodology used by jurists in ifta (the giving of fatwas), which has enabled Islamic law to be responsive to new developments and contemporary challenges. Given the recent expansion of technological, economic and medical advances …

Turkey: At The Crossroads Of Secular West And Traditional East, Padideh Ala'i

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

On January 9, 2008 Washington College of Law at American University sponsored a conference entitled: Turkey: At the Crossroads of Secular West and Traditional East. This conference was percipitated by the recent election of the AKP party in Turkey and my trip to Turkey in summer 2007. In this short introduction to the American University International law Review symposium issue, I summarize the major issues raised in that one day conference specifically by Dean Haluk Kabaalioglu of Yeditepe University Facutly of Law, expert on EU law and Turkish-EU relations,and Professor Feroz Ahmad, the learned historian of modern Turkey. The aim …

Faith And Politics In The Post-Secular Age: The Promise Of President Obama, Francis J. Mootz Iii

Scholarly Works

If the modern era is properly characterized as the 'age of secularism' - a time when constitutional democracies finally have shed the last vestiges of church authority from the political realm and embrace a rationalist and humanist perspective - then the United States appears to be outside the Western mainstream. In this paper I explore how the relationship between politics and religious faith in the United States might be seen as part of the narrative of secularism that defines most other Western countries, even as the differences in the American experience might suggest an evolution of this narrative. My thesis …