Overview

In the burgeoning literature on law and religion, scholarly attention has tended to focus on broad questions concerning the scope of religious freedom, the nature of toleration and the meaning of secularism. An under-examined issue is how religion figures in the decisions, actions and experiences of those charged with performing public duties. This point of contact between religion and public authority has generated a range of legal and political controversies around issues such as the wearing of religious symbols by public officials, prayer at municipal government meetings, religious education and conscientious objection by public servants. Authored by scholars from a variety of disciplines, the chapters in this volume provide insight into these and other issues. Yet the volume also provides an entry point into a deeper examination of the concepts that are often used to organise and manage religious diversity, notably state neutrality. By examining the exercise of public authority by individuals who are religiously committed – or who, in the discharge of their public responsibilities, must account for those who are – this volume exposes the assumptions about legal and political life that underlie the concept of state neutrality and reveals its limits as a governing ideal.

Full Product Details

Author:   Benjamin L Berger ,  Professor Richard Moon
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Hart Publishing
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.480kg
ISBN:  

9781849467155

ISBN 10:   1849467153
Pages:   224
Publication Date:   16 June 2016
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Religious Neutrality and the Exercise of Public Authority Richard Moon and Benjamin L Berger 1. The Meaning and Entailment of the Religious Neutrality of the State: The Case of Public Employees Jocelyn Maclure 2. Against Circumspection: Judges, Religious Symbols, and Signs of Moral Independence Benjamin L Berger 3. Religious Lawyering and Legal Ethics Faisal Bhabha 4. Managing and Imagining Religion in Canada from the Top and the Bottom: 15 Years After Paul Bramadat 5. God Keep Our Land: The Legal Ritual of the McKenna-McBride Royal Commission, 1913–16 Pamela E Klassen 6. In/Visible Religion in Public Institutions: Canadian Muslim Public Servants Amélie Barras, Jennifer A Selby and Lori G Beaman 7. The Prayer Case Saga in Canada: An ‘Expert Insider’ Perspective on Praying in the Political and Public Arenas Solange Lefebvre 8. Physicians’ Rights to Conscientious Objection Bruce Ryder 9. Conscientious Objections by Civil Servants: The Case of Marriage Commissioners and Same-Sex Civil Marriages Richard Moon 10. A Freedom of Religion-Based Argument for the Regulation of Religious Schools Daniel M Weinstock 11. ‘Open House’/‘Portes Ouvertes’: Classrooms as Sites of Interfaith Interface Shauna Van Praagh

Reviews

The work should be of interest to scholars in the fields of law, politics, and religion, but also to civil servants and other professions with a role in public life, such as lawyers, judges, doctors, and teachers. (...) this is a rich and original study of the role of religion in the public sphere. -- Stratos Patrikios,Senior lecturer in Government and Public policy,University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Reading Religion

Author Information

Benjamin L Berger is an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. Richard Moon is a Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Windsor.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions