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The Claim for An Institutional Identity in Healthcare Activities: the Italian Case Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-08-09 Adelaide Madera
The aim of this article is to analyse the status of religiously affiliated health facilities in Italy. Many faith-based healthcare institutions are currently entrapped between the expectation to participate in the healthcare public delivery, and the need for a preservation of their religious identity. Indeed, they are facing an increasing risk of a weakening of their religious identity, due to the
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From Transmitting Authority to Quiet Adaptation: Social Change and the Translation of Islamic Knowledge in Norway Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-08-07 Olav Elgvin
This article explores the transmission of textual Islamic knowledge in Norway—a context in which Muslims form a religious minority—using a pioneering method: studying the translation of texts. Many Muslims in Norway either came from another country themselves or have progenitors who did. Important texts relating to Islam have mostly been available in languages other than Norwegian. This makes it possible
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Playing with the Canon: Ḥanafī Legal Riddles of the Mamluk Period Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-07-12 Christian Mauder
The article investigates the history of the genre of Ḥanafī legal riddles (alghāz fiqhiyya) during the Mamluk period (648/1250–923/1517). It argues that legal riddles did not constitute ‘useless’ knowledge as earlier scholarship on Islamicate learned riddles had assumed. In contrast, the article shows that the Ḥanafī texts under investigation fulfilled important functions in the transmission of canonized
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Fragmentation in the European and Inter-American Human Rights Courts Regarding the Scope of Religious Autonomy: An Analysis of the Use of Sources and Methodologies Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-07-04 Gabriela García Escobar
Fragmentation in International Human Rights Law (IHRL) may affect the universality of human rights norms and their legitimacy. This article analyses a recent case of contradiction between the European and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) regarding employment contracts of religious education teachers and the scope of religious autonomy. These courts reached contradictory conclusions
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New Threats to Sacred Sites and Religious Property Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-06-28 Patrick E Reidy
Over the last 40 years, Native American faith communities have struggled to protect their sacred sites using religious liberty law. Because Native American religious claimants lack an explicit ownership interest in their sacred sites, courts can—and do, consistently—decide in favour of the government as landowner, regardless of anticipated or actual burdens on Indians’ free exercise of religion. In
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A Tale of Two Ṭarīqas: The Iraqi and Khurasani Shāfiʿī Communities in the Fourth/Tenth and Fifth/Eleventh Centuries Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-06-27 Mariam Sheibani
This article provides a new account of Shāfiʿī legal history in the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries: a tale of two ṭarīqas, or interpretive communities, one in Iraq and the other in Khurasan. I show that these two Shāfiʿī communities developed as distinct social and scholarly collectives before gradually converging in Ayyubid Damascus and eventually coalescing around one authoritative school
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The Case for Banning Cousin Marriage Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-05-31 Patrick S Nash
This article presents the universal case for banning cousin marriage regardless of jurisdiction or culture. It is intended both as a resource—the relevant facts and opposing arguments will be set out plainly for reference purposes—and a legal argument which seeks to demonstrate that the weight of evidence concerning this poorly understood practice supports outright prohibition. Accordingly, the article
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Islamic Universities in Egypt and Indonesia as Tools of Liberal Governance: How States Use them to Canonize Reformed Versions of Islam Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-05-22 Aria Nakissa
This article examines how liberal states regulate religion through a comparative study of government-run Islamic universities in Egypt and Indonesia. Building on recent historical scholarship, it is argued that, contrary to conventional views, liberal states have frequently endorsed government intervention in religious life – including “authoritarian” repression of disfavored religious beliefs and
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Eco-theo-logical Hope: Subjectivity, Religions, and Human Rights—A Translational Approach Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-05-14 Melisa Liana Vazquez
Any determination of the human subject emerges from and represents one of innumerable and distinct worldviews. All worldviews depend on both holistic and relational conceptions, infused with specificities of language, kinship, and religious/spiritual ties and understandings. This is particularly evident when considering issues of human rights and the environment, another domain in which an interrelational
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The Death and New Life of Law and Religion Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Marc O De Girolami
The year 2023 was an end and a beginning. It saw the passing or retirement of many giants in the field of law and religion—scholars who brought their formidable erudition and insight to bear on questions that transcended legal doctrine, venturing upward into the heady realms of political theory, philosophy, history, sociology, and theology. These and other recent departures from the active world of
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On Turbans, Abayas, and Colanders: The Scope of Religious Dress in a Pluralistic Society Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-04 Naoual El Yattouti
This article scrutinizes the ongoing European debate surrounding religious attire, particularly in the context of legal restrictions and requests for accommodation. The core inquiry revolves around the ambiguous definition of ‘religious dress’, encompassing both prescribed attire and symbols with religious significance. Beyond conventional religious garments that are generally legally accepted, the
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Sacraments of the Law: Discovering Common Ground of Law and Religion Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-29 Judith Hahn
This article proposes to identify ritualization—as the differentiation between the profane and the sacred—as the basic act underlying the creation of norms. In this light, we can perceive ritualization as a common ground of law and religion. This is particularly evident in ‘sacraments’, a specific type of ritual that culminates in the realization of the sacred within the profane. As ‘norm-facts’, sacraments
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The Language Games of Canon Law: Strategic Ambiguity Between Law and Religion Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Judith Hahn
The continental tradition of modern positive law, with its attempt to formulate clear legal rules, tends to be suspicious of ambiguity and struggles with the productive power of the untranslatable. Opaque kernels that inevitably remain in laws seem risky and call for disambiguation—through legislation, the courts, or administration. Yet despite this struggle against ambiguity, laws, as texts made of
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The Theo-Politics of Ritual: Defining and Contesting the Sacred Order of the Church Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Judith Gruber
Both sociology of religion and statistical bodies within the Catholic Church approach the question of church membership in similar ways: they take participation in religious ritual as a benchmark of affiliation to a religious community. What seems to be a straightforward criterion for measuring membership actually speaks to a complex interplay in the constitution of political and cosmological order:
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Balancing Faith and Equality: Examining the Adequacy of the Doctrine of Essential Religious Practices from Gender Perspectives in India Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Sumit Sonkar
The Supreme Court of India formulated the doctrine of essential religious practices as a legal framework to protect the right to religious practice while enabling the State to implement social reforms, as provided under Article 25 of the Constitution. This article contends that although this doctrine was created to reconcile competing legal frameworks, its inconsistent and incoherent application cannot
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The Rise of Public–Private Religious Partnerships: Arguing Church Autonomy in the Era of Public Funding of Religion Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-01 Nahshon Perez
Religion and government, following the influence of Locke and Madison are often considered two different institutions. As such, they function under different sets of rules. We argue that the ‘two institutions’ image and institutional reality are increasingly untenable. Rather, religion and government are intertwined in many democratic countries, including, growingly, in the US, that it would be more
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Religious Reasons and Liberal Legitimacy Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-01-18 Kim Leontiev
This article addresses the exclusivism–inclusivism debate about religious reasons in law within a justificatory liberal framework. The question of whether religious reasons have justificatory capacity for attaining public justification has increasingly been seen as a matter of how public justification is understood between two rival models: the consensus model being aligned with exclusivism, the convergence
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Conscience and the continuum of constitutionalism: John Calvin on civil government Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-12-05 Constance Lee
This article examines John Calvin’s theology on its own terms with the aim of appreciating the normative basis and implications of his political theory. Although the claim that Calvin’s account of civil government falls within the category of political ‘theology’ is less controversial, the normative implications of his theological ontology for political actors are more commonly contested. Calvin seminally
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Criminalizing Indigenous Belief: The Constitutional Deficits of Uganda’s Witchcraft Act Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-11-10 Busingye Kabumba
The 1995 Constitution of Uganda contains important human rights guarantees, including the freedoms of religion, expression, and association. At the same time, there continues to exist a law, first enacted during the colonial period, which criminalizes—as ‘witchcraft’—certain aspects of African traditional religion. This article considers the extent to which this law is consistent with the liberties
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Divorcing abroad, sharīʿah style: Legal reforms and Moroccan women Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-11-10 Federica Sona
Against the backdrop of the fast-progressing legal reconfigurations happening in European countries and the Muslim world, this article brings to light two internationally noteworthy yet overlooked scenarios. The first regards the plasticity of the Italian provisions fostering the privatization of family matters via extra-judicial matrimonial dissolution formulae, which potentially accommodate Islamically
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Inside Indonesia’s Religious Courts: An Argument for Domestic and Family Violence Screening and Exemption from Compulsory Mediation Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-11-08 Balawyn Jones, Amira Aftab
In Indonesia, Islamic norms have been codified into State family law and divorce petitions are handled by State ‘Religious Courts’ (Pengadilan Agama). Formal, court-annexed mediation at the Religious Courts exists alongside customary (adat) mediation at the community level. In cases involving domestic and family violence, victims are socially expected to mediate at the community level before proceeding
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Why Family Law Treats Female Genital Mutilation and Circumcision Differently: An Explanation Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-10-13 Nick Brown
Family law in England and Wales draws a fundamental and categoric distinction between female genital mutilation (FGM) and male circumcision (circumcision). The former is a criminal abuse of human rights which, for the purposes of section 31 of the Children Act 1989, can never fall within the ambit of reasonable parenting. The latter is, in principle, reasonable and is therefore not in itself a basis
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Muslim Women, Nikah Marriages, Domestic Abuse and Religious Arbitration in England Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-08-09 Islam Uddin
This article explores the underlying causes and motivations surrounding non-legally binding Islamic marriages or nikah-only marriages, and their impact on dispute resolution and the process of obtaining a religious divorce, with a special focus on women experiencing domestic abuse. It draws on empirical data from a study of Islamic divorce in the UK. Inspired by phenomenological approaches, the research
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The Provocation by Witchcraft Defence in Anglophone Africa: Origins and Historical Development Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-06-23 Emmanuel Sarpong Owusu
Provocation by witchcraft, a defence to a homicidal act supposedly perpetrated under the influence of belief in witchcraft and juju, has become a plea frequently invoked by witch-killers in many African countries, particularly those formerly colonized by Britain. Over the last century, the courts in Anglophone Africa have repeatedly been invited to address the question as to whether the belief in witchcraft
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Cogency, Seriousness, Cohesion, and Importance: Assessing the Strasbourg Case-Law on Religion or Belief Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-05-20 Tim Wolff
In Campbell and Cosans v the United Kingdom (1982), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) determined that a view must ‘attain a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance’ to be considered a religion or belief under Article 9 of the Convention. The Court has seemed hesitant to provide much guidance beyond the words quoted. This article’s first aim is to attempt a comprehensive
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Accommodating Non-Muslim Rights: Legal Arguments and Legal Principles in the Islamic Jurisprudence of the Indonesian Supreme Court in the Post-New Order Era Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-05-17 Muhammad Lutfi Hakim, Khoiruddin Nasution
Most Islamic legal literature describes non-Muslims as ‘second-class citizens’. They do not have equal rights to Muslims, particularly under Islamic inheritance law. This article attempts to re-evaluate this general assessment by presenting cases of Islamic inheritance involving non-Muslims in post-New Order Indonesia. Using five decisions of the Indonesian Supreme Court, we argue that whilst the judges’
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Registration, recognition, and freedom of religion or belief Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-05-08 Brandon Reece Taylorian, Marco Ventura
Violations of religious freedom resulting from how states arrange their recognition and registration policies continue to escalate around the world. States might seek to regulate the religious activities of their citizens and recognition and registration are convenient tools in this pursuit. Registration is sometimes made mandatory; groups may be barred from accessing it and what they must do to first
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Countering the Fiction of Neutrality: Pushing for Transparency? Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-01-14 Cathérine Van de Graaf, Angelika Nußberger
Many scholars accept that the principle of neutrality is to a large extent a fictional concept. They often propose different variations that would better realize its prescribed aim of equality. In this contribution, we argue that state agents in general, and judges in particular, cannot be ‘neutral’ as they are not abstract entities. They do not enter the judiciary with a clean slate but as persons
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Swedish Religion Education in Public Schools—Objective and Neutral or a Marination into Lutheran Protestantism? Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-01-10 Jenny Berglund
This article takes its point of departure in the recommendations by the Council of Europe, and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) that recommend that European states should offer education about religions for all school students, regardless of religious or non-religious background. Sweden is one of the countries that provides such education through a compulsory non-denominational
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Are Fatwas Dispensable? Examining the Contemporary Relevance and Authority of Fatwas in Australia Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-12-30 Shaheen Whyte
Fatwas play a central role in the articulation and contextualization of Islamic law. Despite its lofty status within Islam’s juristic tradition, the authoritative value and function of fatwas in contemporary Muslim societies is undergoing significant change. Whereas historical fatwas generated immense solidarity within Islam’s legal schools and traditional ulama (religious scholars), Muslims today
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Is Symbolic Religious Establishment Permitted Within the European Convention? A Legal, Political, and Pragmatic Perspective Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-12-27 Roland Pierik
This article discusses the role of the European Court of Human Rights in regulating the symbolic establishment of religion by the Convention States in their public sphere. The analysis starts from the rather controversial Lautsi decisions and distinguishes three perspectives on such cases. The legal perspective focuses on the way the Court would usually answer a legal question underlying a controversial
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The Margin of Appreciation in Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion under Article 9 of ECHR Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-12-22 Konstantina Alexopoulou
This article analyses the manner in which the margin of appreciation has been developed by the European Court of Human Rights in Article 9 cases. As a principle of subsidiarity European Convention States Parties enjoy a margin of appreciation but its scope varies according to particular principles. It is generally certain, when a proportionality test applies (eg concerning proselytism, places and buildings
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Anxieties of the Dominant: Legal, Social, and Religious in the Politics of Religious Conversion in India Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-06-14 Mukesh Kumar, Garima Yadav
The promulgation of the new state-level conversion laws in India or some changes in already existing ones by ordinances is premised upon various conspiracy theories of Hindu fundamentalists against Muslims. Implicit in and placed at the centre of these new anti-conversion laws and public debates thereof is the conspiracy theory of love-jihad that Muslim men lure Hindu women on the pretext of love and
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The Doctrinal Development of Contemporary Islamic Law: Fiqh Academies as an Institutional Framework Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-04-07 Ahmed Gad Makhlouf
Abstract The rise of modernity, with its tremendous changes and challenges, has had an impact on Islamic law. Among the most recent developments there is—at an institutional and doctrinal level—the emergence of fiqh bodies dealing with contemporary issues based on a collective decision-making process. In contrast to this modern approach of law making, the emphasis on individual legal decision-making
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The Doctrinal Development of Contemporary Islamic Law: Fiqh Academies as an Institutional Framework Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-04-07 Ahmed Gad Makhlouf
Abstract The rise of modernity, with its tremendous changes and challenges, has had an impact on Islamic law. Among the most recent developments there is—at an institutional and doctrinal level—the emergence of fiqh bodies dealing with contemporary issues based on a collective decision-making process. In contrast to this modern approach of law making, the emphasis on individual legal decision-making
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An Islamic Notion of Natural Law: On Teleological Natural Law Thinking in uṣūl al-fiqh Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-03-22 Rike Sinder
For several decades, scholars have engaged in a debate on the question of (the existence of) an Islamic natural law tradition. However, the debate lacks reflection of its very premises: hardly a participant discloses his or her particular understanding of what natural law is. If ever they do so, it is a rational–hierarchical notion of natural law as it was most famously outlined by Thomas Aquinas.
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Conscientious Objection to Abortion Revisited Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-03-07 Rex Ahdar
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The Importance of Being Authorized: The Genesis, Limitations, and Legacy of the Marriage Act 1898 Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-01-27 Rebecca Probert, Rajnaara C Akhtar, Sharon Blake, Vishal Vora, Tania Barton
Every place of worship that is registered for weddings is able to appoint its own ‘authorised person’ to replace the civil registrar who would otherwise be required to attend weddings there. Nonetheless, 120 years after this option was first introduced by the Marriage Act 1898, there are still many places of worship with no authorised person. With provisional proposals for an officiant-based system
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Contagions, Congregations, and Constitutional Law: Reciprocity and Religious Freedom in the 1918 and 2020 Pandemics Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-01-24 Brady Earley
This article undertakes a comparison of legal restrictions on religious gatherings in the USA during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic and the COVID-19 pandemic. After contextualizing each pandemic within its legal, political, and social culture, the analysis distills prevailing principles between the two health crises and their approach to religious liberty. Evidence suggests that courts in both periods
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Ibn ‘Arabī and Kafka on God and the Law Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-01-11 Ismail Lala
Although ostensibly different, Franz Kafka and the mystical theorist Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ‘Arabī (d. 638/1240) both employ complex rhetoricity that accommodates paradox and contradiction. This study compares how their complex rhetoricity exposes the tension between the essential human need to comprehend god, and a god who is essentially apophatic. God’s apophasis, expressed as His numinous laws, inevitably
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Did Pastafarians Lose in Strasbourg, After All? Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-01-06 Wojciech Brzozowski
In the late 2021, the European Court of Human Rights rejected as inadmissible the application lodged by a person affiliated with the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The Court argued that ‘Pastafarianism’, due to its purely satirical character, cannot be considered to be a religion or belief within the sense of Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights. This ruling appears to be convincingly
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The New Reform of the Penal Law of the Catholic Church: Resuscitating a Forgotten Pastoral Instrument? Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-11-19 Nicolás Zambrana-Tévar
The new reform of the penal law of the Catholic Church, amending Book VI of the Code of Canon Law of the Latin Church, as well as other recent canon law norms, aims at making sure that local bishops can punish more straightforwardly and with less discretion those conducts which are considered as most harmful for the church as a community. The drafters of this reform have made it clear that, in the
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Evolving a New Religious Freedom Jurisprudence: A Step Towards Ensuring Equality for Women Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-11-18 Maria Jawed, Dhanaji Mukundrao Jadhav
India is a country of religious pluralism, and cultural diversity wherein religion is one of the important social institutions. Freedom of religion in India is guaranteed as a fundamental right which comprises ‘freedom to freely profess, practice and propagate religion’ within the Constitutional boundary. The Indian constitution fosters equality to all and has a broader interpretative connotation.
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Indonesia's Supreme Court Judgment on Religious Clothing: Failing Women and Girls in Public Schools? Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-11-17 Mohammad Ibrahim
In May 2021, the Indonesian Supreme Court delivered a unanimous judgment that struck down a joint ministerial decree prohibiting local governments and public schools from imposing religious clothing on female students, teachers, and staff.1 The joint ministerial decree was issued following public criticisms and media coverage of the religious dress code enforced in public schools in Padang, West Sumatra
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What Happened to ‘Vivre Ensemble?’: Developments after SAS v France Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-11-17 Megan Pearson
In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights found that France’s prohibition on women wearing the full face veil did not violate Article 9. In doing so, it accepted that the ban was necessary in order to achieve ‘vivre ensemble’ or ‘living together’. The use of the concept was controversial and the response at the time was mostly critical. This article examines when and in what ways the Court has used
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The Midwife’s Tale: Conscientious Objection to Abortion after Grimmark and Steen Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-11-15 Wojciech Brzozowski
In early 2020, the European Court of Human Rights decided two cases of Swedish midwives who had been denied employment following their refusal to assist in performing abortions because of their religious beliefs: Grimmark v Sweden and Steen v Sweden. Surprisingly to many, their applications were declared inadmissible. This comment aims to determine whether they should indeed have been rejected at the
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Christianity and International Law: An Introduction. By P. Slotte and John D. Haskell Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-11-05 Evans M.
Christianity and International Law: An Introduction. By SlotteP. and HaskellJohn D.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, 515 pp., £29.99, ISBN: 978-1-108-46497 (p/b).
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Post-Liberal Religious Liberty: Forming Communities of Charity. By Harrison Joel Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-11-03 Chaplin J.
Post-Liberal Religious Liberty: Forming Communities of Charity. By JoelHarrison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, xvi + 262pp. ISBN: 978-1-108-83650-0
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What’s Wrong with Rights? By Nigel Biggar Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-11-03 McIlroy D.
What’s Wrong with Rights? By BiggarNigel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020, 362pp. ISBN: 978-0-19-886197-3
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Making Sense of a Complex Notion: Debates on State Religious Neutrality in Canada — A View from Quebec Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-10-13 Pierre Bosset
Under Canadian constitutional law, state neutrality acts as an implicit organizing principle for the relations between the state and religions. Neutrality, however, is a polysemic word: conceptions of neutrality vary. Competing versions of neutrality feature in the decisions of Canadian courts. This is starkly evident in decisions that originate from Quebec, where judges have harboured divergent views
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The Malaysian Apostasy Case: Determining the Limits of Syariah Courts Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-10-01 Eden H B Chua
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What’s Wrong with Rights. By Nigel Biggar Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-09-17 Witte J, Jr.
What’s Wrong with Rights. By BiggarNigel, Oxford University Press, 2020, 384 pp., ISBN 9780198861973 (Hardback), $40
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Religion-based ‘Personal’ Law, Legal Pluralism and Secularity: A Field View of Adjudication under Muslim Personal Law in India Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-09-16 Suchandra Ghosh, Anindita Chakrabarti
The phenomenon of ‘legal pluralism’ in India is conditioned and facilitated by the democratic state’s commitment to protect religious freedom and uphold sociocultural diversity. Community-based adjudicating institutions such as the Darul Qaza (also known as Sharia court) function within this constitutional framework but every citizen also has the right to approach a state court as and when they deem
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Accommodating Difference; How is Religious Freedom Protected When It Clashes with Other Rights; Is Reasonable Accommodation the Key to Levelling the Field? Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-08-01 John Bowers
The relationship between Church and State has been an age-old concern, if not an obsession, across many parts of the world and one that led in extreme cases to religious wars and to endless debate and division. In the modern legal context, however, the issue is now captured by questions relating to freedom of religion or belief. One aspect of that freedom that challenges the law is the role of the
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Moral Epistemology and the Revision of Divine Law in Islam Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-08-04 Ahmed Ali Siddiqi
This essay explores the relationship between moral epistemology and legal theory in Islamic thought. Reviewing selected works of Khomeini, Maududi, and Qutb, I show that Islamism, drawing upon certain currents of Muslim intellectual tradition, presupposes a rejection of moral rationalism and on that basis opposes the permanent alteration of explicit divine injunctions. Next, I argue that the unwillingness
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Social Justice: From God to Corporation Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-07-08 Robert McCorquodale
While ‘social justice’ is a recent concept, its origins lie in a 13th century theologian, who, through an Italian Jesuit, inspired a 19th century Pope. From there it has moved to the secular realm and jurisprudential reasoning, and tried to leap from national society to international society. It has become linked internationally to human rights obligations, where it has had a mixed influence. Within
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Punishment for Apostasy: Arguments from Two Traditionally Trained Muslim Scholars in Favor of its Abolition Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-06-18 Ali Akbar
This article explores and compares the views of two traditionally educated Muslim scholars, namely Taha Jabir al-Alwani (d 2016) and Hussein Ali Montazeri (d 2009), about the classical rulings on apostasy in Islam. The article argues that both al-Alwani, a Sunni scholar educated at al-Azhar, and Montazeri, a graduate of the Shiʿi seminary in Qom, defend freedom of religion in the sense of converting
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Unorthodox in the Supreme Court; R (ota Z) v LB of Hackney & Agudas Israel Housing Assoc Ltd Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-06-18 John Bowers
The case of Agudas Israel Housing Assoc Ltddeals for the first time at the Supreme Court levwel with the exempotions to the Equality Act on the grounds of race in s158 and 193.
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Conscience and the Burden Inquiry—What Should Be Investigated in Exemption Cases, and Why? Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-03-29 Wojciech Ciszewski
The article focuses on a crucial segment of a discussion regarding the legitimacy of conscientious exemptions, namely the burden inquiry. The controversy around this issue involves different ways of identifying the proper object of the inquiry, and the types of evidence that should be considered in the assessment. I claim that there are three main approaches in the discussion regarding these issues:
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Gratian and His Book: How a Medieval Teacher Changed European Law and Religion Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-03-29 Anders Winroth
Gratian of Bologna, later bishop of Chiusi (died c. 1145), was a remarkably influential lawyer, who is undeservedly little known today. He was a legal expert who specialized in the rules and regulations of the Western Christian church. In around 1140, he put together a law book known as the Decretum, which became a great success, remaining foundational for medieval and modern law. The article focuses