Religion Law Commons^™

Revelation And Idolatry: Holy Law And Holy Terror, Regina Schwartz

Faculty Working Papers

THE Book of Exodus desscribes the identity of justice and the law. Because elsewhere the gap between justice and the law is so wide -- in Christian theology when it sees the Pharisaic law as inhibiting the realization of justice; in philosophy where from Plato on, law is formal while is justice substantive; in political theory, which includes those who endorse "procedural justice" when they abandon substantive justice -- this radical biblical vision, wherein the law is justice is surely unique. This is not an understanding of the law as a series of prescriptions, the "yoke of the law" but …

Ceremonial Objects From The Collection Of Rabbi David A. Whiman, Beth Mobley

Exhibits

No abstract provided.

The Book Of Job And The Role Of Uncertainty In Religion And Law, Steven Goldberg

Georgetown Law Faculty Lectures and Appearances

The Book of Job depicts the radical uncertainty that results when people try to comprehend God. Job has had an extraordinary influence on philosophy and literature, and its message on the limits of human knowledge has even been echoed in the words of great scientists. Surprisingly, however, it has had little influence on the rhetoric or approach of lawyers and judges. The legal profession, which confronts uncertain outcomes daily, has reduced uncertainty to a mundane calculation of odds, while ignoring the more fundamental idea of the unknown because that idea would paralyze legal work.

Strings Attached: An Analysis Of The Eruv Under The Religion Clauses Of The First Amendment And The Religious Land Use And Institutionalized Persons Act, Alexandra Lang Susman

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

No abstract provided.

Religious Establishment And Autonomy, Andrew Koppelman

Faculty Working Papers

Kent Greenawalt claims that one rationale for nonestablishment of religion is personal autonomy. If, however, the law is barred from manipulating people in religious directions (and thus violating their autonomy), while it remains free to manipulate them in nonreligious directions (and thus violate their autonomy in exactly the same way), autonomy as such is not what is being protected. The most promising alternative is to understand religion as a distinctive human good that is being protected from government interference.

Scriptural Interpretation And Constitutional Interpretation: An Introduction, 2009 Mich. St. L. Rev. 273, 276 (2009), Christopher C. Lund

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Global Issues In Freedom Of Speech And Religion: Cases And Materials, Leslie Gielow Jacobs, Alan Brownstein

McGeorge School of Law Teaching Materials

Brownstein and Jacobs's Global Issues in Freedom of Speech and Religion: Cases and Materials is a companion volume to existing materials. Designed to assist professors in introducing issues of international and comparative law, this title is ideal for use in educational courses that address:

• The First Amendment
• Law and religion
• Individual rights
• Other topics dealing with free speech and religious liberty

In order to make companion materials understandable and accessible to students as well as to professors who have not taught the materials before, this title:

• Includes case excerpts, helpful background materials, and notes
• Is set out in a structure …

Is Religion The Environment’S Last Best Hope? Targeting Change In Individual Behavior Through Personal Norm Activation, Stephen M. Johnson

Articles

This Article explores the important role that religious organizations have played, and can play, in personal norm activation to influence change in individuals’ environmentally destructive actions. Part I of the Article describes the need for regulating or targeting individuals, in addition to industrial sources, in order to address many of the remaining significant environmental problems. Part II examines the advantages and disadvantages of targeting individual actions through command-and-control regulation, economic-based alternatives, and information disclosure programs. Part III outlines the concept of norm activation and details the manner in which information disclosure programs can be used to activate personal norms to …

Empowerment Or Estrangement: Liberal Feminism's Visions Of The “Progress” Of Muslim Women, Cyra Akila Choudhury

Faculty Publications

This paper presents some thoughts on the progress of Muslim women towards gender justice. It argues that Liberal Legal feminism shares a common understanding of history and progress with those Liberal political theories that justified the British Empire. Because of this genealogy, Liberal feminism seeks to reform cultures and societies that do not comport with a particular Liberal teleology that forecloses the expression of alternative ideas of history, progress, and human flourishing. It further argues that Muslim women's organizations that partner with Northern organizations sometimes seek to fulfill Liberal expectations of victimhood at the hands of their culture. The consequence …

New Adventures Of Old Pauline Law, Tawia Baidoe Ansah

Faculty Publications

This article examines the idea of law within two recent philosophical approaches to a theological text. Giorgio Agamben and Alain Badiou, two postmodern philosophers on the political left, look to the letters of St. Paul for the definition and extraction of the political subject. They look to Paul’s messianism and his conversion to discover, within their own philosophical projects, what is truly political within the Western philosophical tradition, for which Paul’s theology is unconditional. The article focuses on the conception of law that, in turn, derives from these projects. The article suggests that within both, despite the objective rejection of …

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

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Substance Of Substantive Equality: Gender Equality And Turkey's Headscarf Debate, Rachel Rebouche

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

You Can Move In But You Can't Stay: To Protect Occupancy Rights After Halprin, The Fair Housing Act Needs To Be Amended To Prohibit Post-Acquisition Discrimination, 42 J. Marshall L. Rev. 751 (2009), Scott N. Gilbert

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Crescent And The Corporation: Analysis And Resolution Of Conflicting Positions Between The Western Corporation And The Islamic Legal System, Craig C. Briess

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Protestant Dissent And The Virginia Disestablishment, 1776-1786, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), the Supreme Court elevated the events surrounding the disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Virginia during and soon after the American Revolution as a principal guide for the meaning of the Establishment Clause. The rule to come out of the Virginia experience is that support for religion should be voluntary thus, no active support by the government. An in-depth examination of James Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance opposing Patrick Henry's Assessment Bill is undertaken here not only because of its role in the Virginia disestablishment, but because it is the most important document on …

Evangelicals And Jews In Common Cause, Marshall J. Breger

Scholarly Articles

Responding to a recent symposium on Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik's 1964 article on the propriety of Christian-Jewish dialogue, this essay begins by assessing several arguments put forth by Soloveitchik. These include the incommensurability of religious faith, the risks interreligious dialogue presents to the Jewish minority, the dangers of syncretism, and the ability to separate neatly the sacred and the profane. The article then proceeds to discuss the nature of Catholic-Jewish today, and concludes with thoughts about the future of Christian and Jewish interaction.

Standing, Spending, And Separation: How The No-Establishment Rule Does (And Does Not) Protect Conscience, Richard W. Garnett

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Equality, Conscience, And The Liberty Of The Church: Justifying The Controversiale Per Controversialius, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

"Render Unto Caesar...": Religion/Ethics, Expertise, And The Historical Underpinnings Of The Modern American Tax System, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Articles by Maurer Faculty

A variety of scholars and commentators have been recently exploring the connections between religion and current U.S. tax policy. The relationship between religion and American taxation, however, runs much deeper than our present period. Indeed, it is no coincidence that roughly a century ago the foundations of our current tax system were taking shape at the height of the religious and ethical fervor known as the Social Gospel movement. At that time, religious and ethical sentiments played a central, though ambivalent, role in fiscal reform. This Article investigates the influence of religious and ethical values on the tax reform struggles …

God And The Land: A Holy War Between Religious Exercise And Community Planning And Development, Patricia E. Salkin, Amy Lavine

Scholarly Works

This article is a brief introduction to The Albany Government Law Review symposium on God and the Land. This piece sets forth a brief history of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) setting the backdrop for the controversy that has surrounded the Act and its impact on religious entities and municipalities. Since the enactment of RLUIPA, the floodgates have burst open with litigation in attempts to clarify many ambiguities in the statute. The remainder of the piece provides a sneak preview of the articles contained in The Albany Government Law Review by Professors Angela Carmella, Marci Hamilton, …

The Uses And Abuses Of Religion In Child Custody Cases: Parents Outside The Wall Of Separation, Joshua S. Press

Indiana Law Journal

Religious custody disputes such as those at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints compound in April, 2008 are very complex and are finding their way into courts with increasing regularity. This Essay argues that in responding to these religious custody disputes, courts should abstain from either analyzing a parent’s religious practices for their perceived “risks of harm” to the child, or from applying a flat rule to ensure that the custodial parent’s religious preferences take primacy. Instead, courts should employ the actual or substantial harm standard—which would only bar a parent from fully practicing her religion if …

Kidneys, Cash, And Kashrut: A Legal, Economic, And Religious Analysis Of Selling Kidneys, Robert E. Steinbuch

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Liberty: Rethinking An Imperiled Ideal By Glenn Tinder, Daniel O. Conkle

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Religious Freedom, Democracy, And International Human Rights, John Witte Jr., M. Christian Green

Faculty Articles

Clearly, religion and freedom do not yet coincide in many countries, however rosy their new constitutional claims are as to religious rights and freedoms for all. Apostasy, Blasphemy, Conversion, Defamation, and Evangelization-these are the new alphabet of religious rights violation in a number of regions around the world. Occurring at the intersection of religion and international human rights, these violations are also challenges to the universality of human rights and the democratic institutions that generate and affirm them.

The Pulpit Initiative: Fighting To Return America's First Freedom To Her Churches, David Abbondanza

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This Comment looks at the foundational principles of the Pulpit Initiative and examines first, whence the need for a change came, and second, whether it is likely to come about. Part 11 examines the historical developments that resulted in the 1954 amendment banning pastors from speaking on candidates from the pulpit. Part III focuses on the ADF and its rationale for bringing about change along with the constitutional reasoning behind its arguments. Part IV provides some concluding remarks surrounding this initiative's likely future and whether the ADF and its associated pastors stand a chance of succeeding against the United States …

Faithful Hermeneutics, Francis J. Mootz Iii

Scholarly Works

This article was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools on January 9, 2009 as part of a panel on "Scriptural and Constitutional Hermeneutics." The panel was co-sponsored by the Law and Religion Section, Section on Jewish Law, and Section on Islamic Law, and the papers will be published by the Michigan State Law Review.

My article compares legal and religious hermeneutics by exploring the dual nature of what I term "faithful hermeneutics." The ambiguity evoked by this phrase is intentional. On one hand, it suggests an investigation of the relationship between legal and religious …

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 …

Making Sense Of The Establishment Clause, Jeffrey Shulman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

While the jurisprudence of the Establishment Clause may not make much sense (common or otherwise) as a substantive legal matter, it does make sense as a series of jurisprudential maneuvers by which the Court has sought to make more room for religion in civic life. In fact, there is a method to the “massive jumble... of doctrines and rules” that forms the law of church-state relations. It is the method of a somewhat disorderly retreat from the Constitution’s foundational principle of disestablishment. The accommodations made by the Court to religious belief and conduct have allowed for discrimination against non-religion, edging …

Eternal Law: The Underpinnings Of Dharma And Karma In The Justice System, Shiv Narayan Persaud

Journal Publications

This article seeks to examine the universal principles of Dharma and Karma as inherent principles within our social system. The hope is to bring about a better understanding of their influences and impact on our justice system by focusing the discussion on the utilization of these concepts by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. in their struggles for justice and equality in two distinct social realities.

Some Difficulties In Assuring Equality And Avoiding Endorsement, Jesse H. Choper

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.