Religion, Secularism, and Constitutional Democracy

Religion, Secularism, and Constitutional Democracy (Religion, Culture, and Public Life) by Jean L. Cohen and Cécile Laborde
English | 2015 | ISBN: 0231168705, 0231168713 | 464 pages | PDF | 4,5 MB

Polarization between political religionists and militant secularists on both sides of the Atlantic is on the rise. Critically engaging with traditional secularism and religious accommodationism, this collection introduces a constitutional secularism that robustly meets contemporary challenges. It identifies which connections between religion and the state are compatible with the liberal, republican, and democratic principles of constitutional democracy and assesses the success of their implementation in the birthplace of political secularism: the United States and Western Europe.

Approaching this issue from philosophical, legal, historical, political, and sociological perspectives, the contributors wage a thorough defense of their project’s theoretical and institutional legitimacy. Their work brings fresh insight to debates over the balance of human rights and religious freedom, the proper definition of a nonestablishment norm, and the relationship between sovereignty and legal pluralism. They discuss the genealogy of and tensions involving international legal rights to religious freedom, religious symbols in public spaces, religious arguments in public debates, the jurisdiction of religious authorities in personal law, and the dilemmas of religious accommodation in national constitutions and public policy when it violates international human rights agreements or liberal-democratic principles. If we profoundly rethink the concepts of religion and secularism, these thinkers argue, a principled adjudication of competing claims becomes possible.

Briefcase on Constitutional & Administrative Law

David Herling, “Briefcase on Constitutional & Administrative Law”
English | 2004 | ISBN: 1859417604 | PDF | pages: 289 | 3 mb

The “Briefcase” series is designed for undergraduate law students to assist with understanding the essential principles of key cases in each subject area. The simple and easy to follow layout includes a summary of key cases and relevant legislation under various topic areas, which can be read in conjunction with larger texts. The “Briefcase” series provides useful summaries for students new to the topic as well as a refresher for those revising for exams. “Briefcase on Constitutional Administrative Law” provides students with digests of the essential cases in the subject area, along with relevant statutory material. Since the last edition was published, the Human Rights Act 1998 has come into force and this edition therefore includes a number of important new cases dealing with the application of the European Convention on Human Rights as part of English law. These include the following topics: Interplay of domestic law with the Convention: Douglas v Hello! Ltd (2001) and Venables and Thompson v News Group Newspapers (2001); The making of declarations of incompatibility: R (on the Application of Alconbury Developments Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (2001) and R v Shayler (2002); Privacy: A v B (A Company) (2002), Campbell v Mirror Group Newspapers (2002) and Douglas and Zeta Jones v Hello! Ltd (2003); and Parliamentary privilege: Attorney General v Jones (1999) and Hamilton v Al Fayed (1999).

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