Comparative Religious Law

Compares the modern legal instruments of Jewish, Christian and Muslim organisations in light of their historical religious laws.

This book brings together two scholarly traditions: experts in Roman, Jewish and Islamic law, an area where scholars tend to be familiar with work in each area, and experts in the legal traditions of South and East Asia, which have tended to be less interdisciplinary. The resulting mix produces new ways of looking at comparative law and legal history from a global perspective, and these essays contribute both to our understanding of comparative religion as well as comparative law.

Comparative law of religions has developed in recent years as a new discipline at the intersection of legal and religious science, of theology and anthropology. This book presents a systematic theoretical basis for this new discipline. While law is mostly associated with the state, many religions also have their own internal law. These internal legal norms are aimed at a particular form of behaviour on the part of believers. They therefore play a particular role in conflicts arising today between certain religious forms of behaviour. The comparison of the internal law of religions serves to establish and explain the commonalities and differences between various religious legal traditions. The religions examined here include: the law of Christian denominations, Jewish law, Islamic law, Hindu law, Buddhist law, and other religious legal systems. The work assesses six current approaches to the comparative law of religions, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses, leading to the development of a new approach. The book discusses the role of religious law in state law and looks to likely future developments. The work will be essential for those interested in the administration of justice and politics, for those professions where intercultural competence is required, and for interreligious dialogue.

This book is devoted to the study of the interplay between religious rules and State law. It explores how State recognition of religious rules can affect the degree of legal diversity that is available to citizens and why such recognition sometime results in more individual and collective freedom and sometime in a threat to equality of citizens before the law. The first part of the book contains a few contributions that place this discussion within the wider debate on legal pluralism. While State law and religious rules are two normative systems among many others, the specific characteristics of the latter are at the heart of tensions that emerge with increasing frequency in many countries. The second part is devoted to the analysis of about twenty national cases that provide an overview of the different tools and strategies that are employed to manage the relationship between State law and religious rules all over the world.

Comparing Religions Through Law offers a ground- breaking study which compares these two religions through shared dominant structures. In the case of Judaism and Islam the dominant structure is law. Comparing Religions Through Law presents an innovative and sometimes controversial study of the comparisons and contrasts between the two religions and offers an example of how comparative religious studies can provide grounds for mutual understanding.

A comparative introduction for students on the national laws governing religion in Europe, this book examines national laws, particularly as they affect the attitudes of states towards religion, religious freedom and discrimination, and the legal position and autonomy of religious organizations.

Should offence to religions be punishable by law, or does freedom of expression extend even to blasphemy? This book examines this question.

Much has been written on specific religious legal systems, yet substantial comparative studies that strive to compare systems, identifying their analogies and differences, have been relatively few. This absence undermines the capacity to understand religions and becomes particularly serious when the faithful of these religions live together in the same geographical space, as happens today with increasing frequency. Both interreligious dialogue and dialogue between States and religions presuppose a set of data and information that only comparative research can provide. This book seeks to address this gap in the literature by presenting a comparative analysis of Christian, Jewish, Islamic and Hindu laws and traditions. Divided into five parts, the first part of the book offers the historical background for the legal analysis that is developed in the subsequent parts. Part II deals with the sources of law in the four religions under discussion. Part III addresses the dynamics of belonging and status, and Part IV looks at issues relating to the conclusion of marriage and its dissolution. The fifth and final part discusses how each religion views the legal other. Each part concludes with exploring what we can learn from a comparative examination of the topic that is dealt with in that part. Written by leading experts in the field, this book presents a clear and comprehensive picture of key religious legal systems along with a substantial bibliography. It provides a state of the art overview of scholarship in this area accompanied by a critical evaluation. As such, it will be an invaluable resource for all those concerned with religious legal systems, multiculturalism and comparative law.