JCPW, Author at LAW AND RELIGION FORUM

Posted on February 14, 2014July 27, 2016 by JCPW

Around the Web This Week

Some interesting law & religion stories from around the web this week:

Starting later this year, Dutch bankers will have to swear an oath that they will do their “utmost to maintain and promote confidence in the financial-services industry. So help me God.” The oath is part of a major attempt by regulators and banks to clean up after the financial crisis of 2008
On Thursday, Belgian lawmakers passed a bill that extends the “right to die” to those under the age of 18, subject to certain strict conditions and consent of parents or guardians
Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced a new policy aimed at ensuring rights under federal law to same-sex couples
On Tuesday, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee declared a moratorium on the death penalty, citing concerns about unequal application of justice in determining who is executed
As part of a settlement offer, Penguin Books India has agreed to withdraw from sale all copies of a book that takes an unorthodox view of Hinduism
The dispute among United Methodists over the recognition of same-sex couples betrays a deep schism within the church
The LDS Church may eliminate the one-year waiting period between a civil marriage ceremony and a temple wedding for members in the U.S. and Canada
Amending a decades-old law, Spain says it will now allow foreign Sephardim Jews who become nationals to keep their original citizenship
U.N. High Commissioner said “ethnic-religious cleansing” is tearing apart the Central African Republic, and called on the international community to help restore order

Posted on February 14, 2014July 27, 2016 by JCPW

This March, The Catholic University of America Press will publish Liberty and Law: The Idea of Permissive Natural Law, 1100-1800 by Brian Tierney (Cornell University). The publisher’s description follows.

Liberty and Law examines a previously underappreciated theme in legal history – the idea of permissive natural law. The idea is mentioned only peripherally, if at all, in modern histories of natural law. Yet it engaged the attention of jurists, philosophers, and theologians over a long period and formed an integral part of their teachings. This ensured that natural law was not conceived of as merely a set of commands and prohibitions that restricted human conduct, but also as affirming a realm of human freedom, understood as both freedom from subjection and freedom of choice. Freedom can be used in many ways, and throughout the whole period from 1100 to 1800 the idea of permissive natural law was deployed for various purposes in response to different problems that arose. It was frequently invoked to explain the origin of private property and the beginnings of civil government.

Several kinds of permissive natural law were identified. Permission could be positive or negative, depending on whether it was specifically conceded by a legislator or only tacitly allowed. It could free from sin or merely remit some temporal punishment that was due. It could commend some conduct without commanding it or permit some evil without condoning it. Medieval canonists used the concept of permissive natural law to harmonize the discordant texts that they found in their sources; William of Ockham found it a powerful tool in his defense of Franciscan poverty against papal criticisms; for Richard Hooker it justified both the constitutional structure and the ritual practices of the Anglican church; John Selden used it to uphold the inviolability of contracts, most importantly the contract of government; Hugo Grotius made it a central theme in his treatment of the conduct permissible in waging war; in the eighteenth century Jean Barbeyrac and Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui associated the idea with the emerging doctrine of natural rights. In Liberty and Law, Tierney has presented us with a magisterial and provocative way of interpreting legal history.

Posted on February 14, 2014July 27, 2016 by JCPW

Buckingham, “Fighting Over God”

This month, McGill Queens University Press will publish Fighting Over God: A Legal and Political History of Religious Freedom in Canada by Janet Epp Buckingham (Trinity Western University). The publisher’s description follows.

From before Confederation to the present day, religion has been one of the most contentious issues in Canadian public life. In Fighting over God, Janet Buckingham surveys a vast array of religious conflicts, exploring both their political aspects and the court cases that were part of their resolution.

While topics such as the Manitoba Schools Crisis and debates about Sunday shopping are familiar territory, Buckingham focuses on lesser-known conflicts such as those over the education of Doukhobor and Mennonite children and the banning of the Jehovah’s Witness religion under the Defence of Canada Regulations during the Second World War. Subjects are explored thematically with chapters on the history of religious broadcasting, education, freedom of expression, religious practices, marriage and family, and religious institutions.

Contentious issues about religious accommodation are not going away. Fighting over God cites over six hundred legal cases, across nearly four centuries, to provide a rich context for the ongoing social debate about the place of religion in our increasingly secular society.

Posted on February 7, 2014July 27, 2016 by JCPW

Around the Web This Week

Some interesting law & religion stories from around the web this week:

At the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, President Obama told political leaders that religious freedom is important to national security and a central tenet of U.S. diplomacy
Following a Supreme Court ruling which ordered funding halted to seminaries whose students are exempt from the draft, thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews have blocked highways across Israel in protest
An English court summoned the head of the Mormon church to answer charges that Mormon religious claims are fraud
More than 100,000 marched through Paris and Lyon to protest France’s legalization of same-sex marriage and to show their support for traditional family and educational values
The Vatican responded to a UN human rights committee’s report criticizing the Vatican for its response to the child sex abuse crisis and its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception, and abortion.
MSPs in Scotland voted by 105 to 18 in favor of the Marriage and Civil Partnership Bill, which will allow same-sex marriages
In Spain, thousands of demonstrators marched on parliament to protest a draft law that would ban abortion except in cases of rape and when the mother’s health is at serious risk
A Roman Catholic middle school fired an unmarried, pregnant teacher for violating the terms of her contract
A former Children’s Hospital Boston employee claims she was fired because her Islamic beliefs prohibited her from getting a mandatory flu shot and is suing the hospital
The New York Times editorial board thinks that allowing employers to be exempt from the ACA’s contraceptives mandate would violate the Establishment Clause
Happy Tenth Anniversary to Mirror of Justice!

Posted on February 7, 2014July 27, 2016 by JCPW

Elver, “The Headscarf Controversy”

Next month, Oxford University Press will publish The Headscarf Controversy: Secularism and Freedom of Religion by Hilal Elver (University of California Santa Barbara). The publisher’s description follows.

Hilal Elver offers an in-depth study of the escalating controversy over the right of Muslim women to wear headscarves. Examining legal and political debates in Turkey, several European countries including France and Germany, and the United States, Elver shows the troubling exclusion of pious Muslim women from the public sphere in the name of secularism, democracy, liberalism, and women’s rights.

After evaluating political actions and court decisions from the national level of individual governments to the international sphere of the European Court of Human Rights, Elver concludes that judges and legislators are increasingly influenced by social pressures concerning immigration and multiculturalism, and by issues such as Islamophobia, the “war on terror,” and security concerns. She shows how these influences have resulted in a failure on the part of many Western governments to recognize and protect essential individual freedoms.

Employing a critical legal theory perspective to the headscarf controversy, Elver argues that law can be used to change underlying social conditions shaping the role of religion, and also the position of women in modern society. The Headscarf Controversy demonstrates how changes in law across nations can be used to restore state commitments to human rights.

Posted on February 7, 2014July 27, 2016 by JCPW

Shogimen & Spencer (eds.), “Visions of Peace: Asia and the West”

This month, Ashgate published Visions of Peace: Asia and the West edited by Takashi Shogimen (University of Otago) and Vicki A. Spencer (University of Otago). The publisher’s description follows.

Visions of Peace: Asia and the West explores the diversity of past conceptualizations as well as the remarkable continuity in the hope for peace across global intellectual traditions. Current literature, prompted by September 11, predominantly focuses on the laws and ethics of just wars or modern ideals of peace. Asian and Western ideals of peace before the modern era have largely escaped scholarly attention. This book examines Western and Asian visions of peace that existed prior to c.1800 by bringing together experts from a variety of intellectual traditions.

The historical survey ranges from ancient Greek thought, early Christianity and medieval scholasticism to Hinduism, classical Confucianism and Tokuguwa Japanese learning, before illuminating unfamiliar aspects of peace visions in the European Enlightenment. Each chapter offers a particular case study and attempts to rehabilitate a ‘forgotten’ conception of peace and reclaim its contemporary relevance. Collectively they provide the conceptual resources to inspire more creative thinking towards a new vision of peace in the present. Students and specialists in international relations, peace studies, history, political theory, philosophy, and religious studies will find this book a valuable resource on diverse conceptions of peace.

Posted on January 31, 2014July 27, 2016 by JCPW

Around the Web This Week

Some interesting law & religion stories from around the web this week:

The Heritage Foundation held a panel on the plight of Syria’s Christians this week, featuring prominent Christian leaders from Syria who highlighted the dangers their communities are facing in the civil war
On religion’s growing public role in in Eastern Europe since the collapse of communism
Pakistan’s blasphemy law is quickly becoming a potent weapon in the arsenal of Muslim extremists
On Wednesday, the Israeli Supreme Court considered two appeals by Palestinians against the planned route of the West Bank security barrier, which villagers say will cut them off from their land
Changes to Catholic schools may be coming in Ireland after the European Court of Human Rights found the government liable for failing to protect children
African church leaders are urging parties in the South Sudanese conflict to respect Christian places of worship in light of the attacks and looting that have been occurring
Rabbinical objections notwithstanding, data shows significant rise in Orthodox female draftees into the Israeli army in recent years
In a House subcommittee on Military Personnel, lawmakers investigated claims that military chaplains have faced discrimination for their beliefs. A statement by The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty about the claims is here
The Church of England’s College of Bishops has issued a statement that “no change” to the Church of England’s teaching on marriage is proposed or envisioned
An African-led traditionalist group opposed to growing acceptance of homosexuality in the worldwide Anglican communion has rejected a Church of England plea to review its beliefs

Posted on January 31, 2014July 27, 2016 by JCPW

Whitt, “Bringing God to Men”

This February, The University of North Carolina Press will publish Bringing God to Men: American Military Chaplains and the Vietnam War by Jacqueline E. Whitt (Air War College). The publisher’s description follows.

During the second half of the twentieth century, the American military chaplaincy underwent a profound transformation. Broad-based and ecumenical in the World War II era, the chaplaincy emerged from the Vietnam War as generally conservative and evangelical. Before and after the Vietnam War, the chaplaincy tended to mirror broader social, political, military, and religious trends. During the Vietnam War, however, chaplains’ experiences and interpretations of war placed them on the margins of both military and religious cultures. Because chaplains lived and worked amid many communities–religious and secular, military and civilian, denominational and ecumenical–they often found themselves mediating heated struggles over the conflict, on the home front as well as on the front lines.

In this benchmark study, Jacqueline Whitt foregrounds the voices of chaplains themselves to explore how those serving in Vietnam acted as vital links between diverse communities, working personally and publicly to reconcile apparent tensions between their various constituencies. Whitt also offers a unique perspective on the realities of religious practice in the war’s foxholes and firebases, as chaplains ministered with a focus on soldiers’ shared experiences rather than traditional theologies.

Posted on January 31, 2014July 27, 2016 by JCPW

Khalid, “Islam After Communism”

This February, the University of California Press will publish Islam After Communism: Religion and Politics in Central Asia by Adeeb Khalid (Carleton College). The publisher’s description follows.

How do Muslims relate to Islam in societies that experienced seventy years of Soviet rule? How did the utopian Bolshevik project of remaking the world by extirpating religion from it affect Central Asia? Adeeb Khalid combines insights from the study of both Islam and Soviet history to answer these questions. Arguing that the sustained Soviet assault on Islam destroyed patterns of Islamic learning and thoroughly de-Islamized public life, Khalid demonstrates that Islam became synonymous with tradition and was subordinated to powerful ethnonational identities that crystallized during the Soviet period. He shows how this legacy endures today and how, for the vast majority of the population, a return to Islam means the recovery of traditions destroyed under Communism.

Islam after Communism reasons that the fear of a rampant radical Islam that dominates both Western thought and many of Central Asia’s governments should be tempered with an understanding of the politics of antiterrorism, which allows governments to justify their own authoritarian policies by casting all opposition as extremist. Placing the Central Asian experience in the broad comparative perspective of the history of modern Islam, Khalid argues against essentialist views of Islam and Muslims and provides a nuanced and well-informed discussion of the forces at work in this crucial region.

Posted on January 24, 2014July 27, 2016 by JCPW

Around the Web

Some interesting law & religion stories from around the web this week:

The U.S. Department of Defense has released new regulations allowing service members to display religious beliefs by wearing, for example, a turban, scarf, or beard, as long as there is no interference with military readiness, discipline, or order.
Some Sikh American organizations are criticizing the new regulations for not going far enough, since requests for religious accommodation will still be decided on a case-by-case basis.
President Obama will meet with Pope Francis for the first time on March 27 at the Vatican to discuss their shared commitment to fighting poverty and growing inequality.
Funding for the relocation of the U.S. embassy to the Holy See from its current location near the Circus Maximus to the grounds of the US embassy to Italy, is included in the spending bill passed by the Senate last Thursday.
From self-imposed exile in the Poconos, Islamist Fethullah Gulen is leading a movement aimed at unraveling the coalition that has governed Turkey since 2002. Gulen recently accused Prime Minister Erdogan, also an Islamist, of abandoning the path of reform.
As one of 45 religious groups fighting the ACA’s contraception mandate, the Little Sisters of the Poor have stepped into the spotlight.
The ACLU is suing a school board in Louisiana, alleging officials at one of its schools harassed a sixth-grader because of his Buddhist faith.
Plans are underway for an interfaith prayer building near Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. The building will combine a church, a synagogue, and a mosque under one roof.
The UN AIDS taskforce and human rights groups will launch a battle in local courts against Malawi’s laws criminalizing homosexuality
A former Vatican prelate was charged with laundering millions through the Vatican bank.
The Mormon Church has issued a sweeping defense of Utah’s liquor laws, saying the rules are closely tied to the the state’s moral culture.

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LAW AND RELIGION FORUM

Author: JCPW

Around the Web This Week

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Tierney, “Liberty and Law”

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Buckingham, “Fighting Over God”

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Elver, “The Headscarf Controversy”

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Shogimen & Spencer (eds.), “Visions of Peace: Asia and the West”

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Whitt, “Bringing God to Men”

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Khalid, “Islam After Communism”

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