Religion Law Commons^™

Legal Affinities: Explorations In The Legal Form Of Thought, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

This is my Introduction to Legal Affinities: Explorations in the Legal Form of Thought (forthcoming 2012) (co-edited with H. Jefferson Powell and Jack Sammons), a volume of essays dedicated to exploring the work of Joseph Vining. The Introduction introduces Vining’s phenomenology of law and surveys the themes and topics developed by the volume’s eight authors: Joseph Vining, Judge John T. Noonan, Jr., Rev. John McCausland, H. Jefferson Powell, Jack Sammons, Steve Smith, James Boyd White, and Patrick Brennan.

Family Law's Challenge To Religious Liberty, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

This Article argues that challenges made to family law structures have provoked a significant reaction from persons and religious organizations advocating a distinctive worldview based on religious and historical values. Additionally, as family law changes from being a product of a religioushistorical worldview to being a product of private-ordering, the religious liberty of worldview adherents has been challenged. The struggle is apparent in the debates during the 2012 presidential election and is evidenced in government mandates that include, among other requirements, that employersincluding religious organizations-provide insurance coverage for employees that include contraception. Although many aspects of family law have been …

The Constitutional Right Not To Kill, Mark L. Rienzi

Scholarly Articles

Federal and state governments participate in and/or permit a variety of different types of killings. These include military operations, capital punishment, assisted suicide, abortion and self-defense or defense of others. In a pluralistic society, it is no surprise that there will be some members of the population who refuse to participate in some or all of these types of killings. The question of how governments should treat such refusals is older than the Republic itself. Since colonial times, the answer to this question has been driven largely by statutory protections, with the Constitution playing a smaller role, particularly since the …

Introductory Note To The European Court Of Human Rights (Gc): Şahin V. Turkey, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This note introduces a Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights decision which considered whether disparate outcomes from different court systems of the same state evaluating the same set of facts constituted a violation of the European Convention’s right to a fair hearing. While discussion of micro level Turkish procedural issues is required, the Şahin case also provides broader, macro lessons on the legitimacy of military court decisions.

Who Owns The Soul Of The Child?: An Essay On Religious Parenting Rights And The Enfranchisement Of The Child, Jeffrey Shulman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

At common law, and (for most of the nation's history) under state statutory regimes, the authority of the parent to direct the child's upbringing was a matter of duty, not right, and chief among parental obligations was the duty to provide the child with a suitable education. It has long been a legal commonplace that at common law the parent had a "sacred right" to the custody of his or her child, that the parent's right to control the upbringing of the child was almost absolute. But this reading of the law is sorely anachronistic, less history than advocacy on …

Oklahoma's Save Our State Amendment: Two Issues For The Appeal, John T. Parry

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

There Is A World Elsewhere: Preliminary Studies On Alternatives To Interest-Based Bargaining, F. Peter Philips

Articles & Chapters

Studies of selected ancient dispute resolution methods suggest that interest-based bargaining is culturally specific and may be inapplicable in societies where individual gratification is not as highly valued as social harmony or spiritual coherence.

Saving Their Own Souls: How Rluipa Failed To Deliver On Its Promises, Sarah Gerwig-Moore

Articles

In the summer of 2001, as a graduate student in law and theology, I began work on a master’s thesis that examined the predicament of men of faith on San Quentin’s Condemned Row. I was working in the California Appellate Project—mostly assisting with direct appeals and state habeas petitions on behalf of men under a death sentence—when a colleague guided me into theological conversations with some of our clients. On Condemned Row, they waited—up to five years to be assigned a court-appointed appellate attorney, on judges’ rulings, and to find whether the legal system would ultimately exact the penalty it …

Symposium Introduction: The Competing Claims Of Law And Religion: Who Should Influence Whom?, Michael Helfand

Michael A Helfand

This introduction provides a preface to the Pepperdine Law Review symposium from the Third Annual Religious Legal Theory Conference on "The Competing Claims of Law & Religion: Who Should Influence Whom." As the introduction notes, the relationship between law and religion is both fraught with tension but also provides great opportunity. In so doing, the introduction sketches some of the varied responses to conflicts between law and religion, providing a brief overview of the papers included in the symposium issue.

Issues Of Law And Religion In The News -- Amish Beard Cutters, Hate Crimes, And The Limits Of The Commerce Clause, Lorin Geitner

Lorin C. Geitner

Amish are being tried under a Federal Hate Crimes statute in Ohio for cutting the beards of elders in another Amish community. Why such a strange form of assault? Since this is an Amish on Amish crime, does it constitute a hate crime? And is the reliance of the statute on the commerce clause over-reaching, and potentially under-reaching as well?

Social Architecture And The Law, Lorin Geitner

Lorin C. Geitner

The reputation of attorneys has steadily declined over the last 50 years. How can we determine why this has occurred? Given the relatively high reputation of British Barristers, a comparison of US and British court room arrangement and practice may provide some clues, and the heuristic of "critical spatial studies" provides a methodology.

Issues Of Law And Religion In The News -- Hutterites, Lorin Geitner

Lorin C. Geitner

The Hutterites are an Anabaptist group who live communally. This lifestyle has allowed them to compete against private construction firms in Montana. A new law requires the Hutterites to carry workers compensation for their members who work in construction. The Hutterites counter that they already have provisions in their society that provide all the coverage provided by workers compensation. The legislator who sponsored this bill says this bill is needed to provide an even playing field. What are the Hutterites history, beliefs and practices which lead them to believe this is redundant? What are the legal principles involved? Who is …

Issues Of Law And Religion In The News -- Mennonites, Lorin Geitner

Lorin C. Geitner

An ordinance in Mitchell county, Iowa, forbade the use of tractors with steel-rim tires on county roads, for the sake of road preservation. The Groffdale Old Order Mennonites, however, require their members to use just such tires, for religious reasons. When a Mennonite youth received a citation for driving such a tractor on the road, it set off a nearly prototypical Church/State conflict. What do steel-rim tires have to do with religion? And does the county's concern with preserving roads trump this religious practice, or vice versa?

Issues Of Law And Religion, In The News -- Non-Catholic Teachers Fired For Fertility Treatments, Lorin Geitner

Lorin C. Geitner

Two non-Catholic teachers had been fired from Catholic schools, for breaching Catholic doctrine when it comes to acceptable fertility treatments. Has the Catholic Church breached its employment contracts with these teachers? If so, would it still be protected under the ministerial exception?

'We Have The Right Not To Be "Rescued"…': When Anti-Trafficking Programmes Undermine The Health And Well-Being Of Sex Workers (Peer-Reviewed), Aziza Ahmed, Meena Seshu

Aziza Ahmed

No abstract provided.

Saving The Preachers The Tax Code's Prohibition On Church Electioneering, Nicholas P. Cafardi

Nicholas P. Cafardi

El Proyecto De Reforma Del Artículo 24 Constitucional Sobre Libertad Religiosa, Jorge Adame Goddard

Jorge Adame Goddard

No abstract provided.

Significado Y Alcance De Las Restricciones Constitucionales Impuestas A Los Ministros De Culto, Jorge Adame Goddard

Jorge Adame Goddard

No abstract provided.

Las Restricciones A Los Derechos Políticos De Los Ministros De Culto De Hacer Proselitismo Y Oponerse A Las Leyes Y A Las Instituciones, Jorge Adame Goddard

Jorge Adame Goddard

No abstract provided.

Repensar A Teoria Do Estado Entre Pluralismo Ético E Globalização, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Não pode deixar de haver uma relação entre Estado e valores. Sem alguns valores partilhados, o Estado tem dificuldades. Há sempre, de um modo ou de outro, uma Ética no Estado. Ou várias. Como lidar com as éticas e as morais em sociedades pluralista como as nossas? Esta dificuldade obriga-nos também a repensar o próprio Estado, também desafiado por tempos de globalização. Foram estas algumas das interrogações que desejamos colocar neste estudo, elaborado para corresponder ao honroso convite para colaborar no portentoso volume que homenageia o grande constitucionalista brasileiro, e Vice-Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil, Prof. Michel Temer.