Freedom of Religion. A Comparative Law Perspective consists of five chapters, looking at freedom of religion, particularly the display of religious symbols, in Poland, Italy, Hungary, and the United States. It provides a concise and very insightful look into the legal regimes of four nations, allowing reader to get a solid comparative view of public religious displays in these countries. Each chapter has sufficient depth and overall this edited volume will be a useful resource to scholars and jurists in this area. Dr. James C. Phillips, Stanford University’s Constitutional Law Center The presented volume leads to an in-depth reflection on the issue of the display of religious symbols in the public sphere, which is widely discussed today. Most of the articles prove that secularism of the contemporary state ruled by law targets Christian symbolism (cross, cradle, the Decalogue). Christian religious symbols shall always be inscribed in the temporal order, otherwise they have no chance to be displayed in the public sphere. In this way, the rights of Catholic believers, as one of the dominant religious groups, are restricted in the name of the protection of religious and areligious minorities. As a result, the aim is to bring about the actual equality of all religions and – ultimately – the final removal of the Christian tradition from Western culture. Against this background, Polish (as well as Hungarian and Italian) judicial decisions present a different approach, which – as the authors of the volume prove – presents a position in favour of the presence of religious symbolism in the public sphere. The multifaceted evaluation of the inconsistency, casuistry and nuance of the jurisprudence of the US Supreme Court is extremely creative and interesting. It allows to conclude that the jurisprudence of the US Supreme Court, which usually limits the presence of religious symbols in the public forum, has not yet become universally binding. The pluralism of philosophical and religious attitudes still constitutes the axiological core of American democracy. Prof. dr hab. Andrzej Dziadzio, Jagiellonian University in Kraków

Offering extensive international and comparative law materials, as well as discussion of key United States First Amendment cases, international experts Durham and Scharffs bring vision and scope to the study of Law and Religion. The text and its continually updated online Supplement support courses on Law and Religion, Church and State, International Human Rights, Comparative Constitutional Law, and First Amendment. New to the Second Edition: ¿ National: Recent U.S. court cases and legislative moves dealing with religion in conflict with anti- discrimination norms, including immigration; same-sex marriage; and conscientious objection by religious organizations, government officials, pharmacies, businesses (including “wedding vendors”) to providing products, services, and insurance benefits in violation of religious beliefs ¿ International: Landmark religion cases in Canada, Europe, and Asia involving such issues as women’s rights, law school accreditation, display of religious symbols and wearing of face coverings in public (including schools); persecution of religious minorities, including prosecution for blasphemy; discussion of new levels of and responses to religious extremism ¿ Comparative: Discussions across multiple jurisdictions of such issues as education, tax, government regulation of religion, and women’s issues, such as genital cutting (worldwide, including U.S.) and divorce (“triple talaq” in India, Shari’a arbitration in Canada, and Shari’a councils in the U.K.) Professors and students will benefit from: ¿ Traditional law and religion course coverage of U.S. materials, including the major Free Exercise and Establishment Clause cases ¿ Comparative law cases and materials reflecting more than fifty countries and regions, and which include corporal punishment; compelled patriotic observances; state funding of religions; autonomy of religious organizations to choose personnel and provide services; conscientious objection in the military and in personal, employment, and educational settings; parameters of speech regulation, including hate speech and speech that offends religious sensibilities; anti- conversion laws; the rights of women in tension with religious claims of exclusion and divorce practices; and much more ¿ International law materials, including: o Key international and regional human rights instruments; 87 cases from the European Court of Human Rights; and key decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the United Nations Human Rights Committee o Cases covering issues such as the right to register religious associations; headscarves and face coverings; religious slaughter for kosher and halal foods; exemptions from church taxes; conscientious objection; proselytizing; religious oaths; church autonomy; religious education; and conflicts arising between religious freedom and other human rights (e.g., women's rights, rights of indigenous peoples, sexual minorities, and children's rights) o Responses from inside and outside the Muslim world to the rise of violent Islamist extremism ¿ Islamic, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, and other perspectives on freedom of religion, touching on defamation of religion; the new constitution of Iraq; religious political parties in Turkey; the definition of being Jewish for rights of citizenship in Israel; the right of Muslim and Hindu women to enter sacred space in India; death sentences and extra-judicial lynching for perceived violation of blasphemy laws in Pakistan; and reactions of governments, including the government of Russia, to perceived religious extremism

Freedom of Conscience. A Comparative Law Perspective addresses the timeliest of topics. Across the European continent as well as in the Anglophone world (including the United States), “freedom of conscience” is at the forefront of issues addressed by judges and legislators. It is also a perennial matter of great importance. Public authorities throughout the ages have struggled to understand, and properly to meld, the necessities of political order and the freedom of competent adults to author their own actions and to constitute themselves by making, and acting upon, their conscientious decisions about what moral truth requires of them. The urgency and gravity of the issues presented by “freedom of conscience” is also matched by their intrinsic complexity. For all these reasons, only a multi-disciplinary, full-orbed approach to these questions will do them justice. This volume rises to the occasion. The comparative perspective supplied by the editor’s recruitment of an international group of scholars, and also by his assignment to some of them the task of investigating additional countries, is utterly invaluable. The papers deftly blend what I might call “lawyer’s law” – that is, a careful presentation of the facts and holdings of courts or the precise details of a particular statutory scheme – with genuine philosophical depth. I should like to emphasize this virtue of the collection by observing that collections of this general sort tend to be either all sail or all anchor, either drowned in the minutiae of law without a care for the big picture, or all philosophy untethered to the reality of the positive law. Blicharz’s book has broken this mold. It promises to appeal to working lawyers, students, judges, and scholars. Gerard V. Bradley, Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame, USA This edited volume will be a useful resource to scholars in this area. It has a rich national variety, covering Poland (extensively), Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, and three Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway, and Finland). Anyone interested in the state of the freedom of conscience in notable Western democracies will benefit from this work. Those particularly interested in Poland, a country not always focused on in the literature, will find this book of great value. And that is the hallmark of scholarship – a conversation in the search for truth. James C. Phillips, PhD, Stanford University’s Constitutional Law Center, USA

Freedom of Speech: A Comparative Law Perspective offers a wide-ranging review of free speech law in Europe, the U.S., Canada and Australia, with a special focus on hate speech and on artistic and scientific speech. It provides a great deal of information on these topics, in a single volume, which presents a considerable value to anyone who wants to study the subject. prof. Christopher Wolfe, University of Dallas The book is disturbing. It encourages to pose serious questions, in particular about the phenomenon of the persecution for expressing traditional views, which ceased to be accepted by certain political and intellectual elites. It presents the context which allows us to realize how difficult it is to address such issues. Nevertheless, searching for the answers seems absolutely necessary. The analyses of the US law could be considered a universal parable about the awareness of free speech. The analyses of the law in other countries warn us how fragile the protection of freedom of expression is. prof. Franciszek Longchamps de Bérier, Jagiellonian University in Kraków The volume focuses on an important and complex theoretical question of practical value which is inscribed in the debate on the limits of freedom of speech. It is a collection of independent studies with a clearly presented central idea. Written by the authors representing not only different academic institutions and countries but even different legal cultures. Such a choice of authors offers a variety of presented evaluations, which testifies to the richness of content included in the book and is an invitation to further studies and analyses. prof. Wojciech Lis, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin

Violations of religious freedom and violence committed in the name of religion grab our attention on a daily basis. Freedom of religion or belief is a key human right: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, numerous conventions, declarations and soft law standards include specific provisions on freedom of religion or belief. The 1981 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief has been interpreted since 1986 by the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. Special Rapporteurs (for example those on racism, freedom of expression, minority issues and cultural rights) and Treaty Bodies (for example the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Committee on the Rights of the Child) have also elaborated on freedom of religion or belief in the context of their respective mandates. Freedom of Religion or Belief: An International Law Commentary is the first commentary to look comprehensively at the international provisions for the protection of freedom of religion or belief, considering how they are interpreted by various United Nations Special Procedures and Treaty Bodies. Structured around the thematic categories of the United Nations Special Rapporteur's framework for communications, the commentary analyses, for example, the limitations on the wearing of religious symbols and vulnerable situations, including those of women, detainees, refugees, children, minorities and migrants, through a combination of scholarly expertise and practical experience.

This volume shows how and why legal empowerment is important for those exercising their religious rights under various jurisdictions, in conditions of legal pluralism. At the same time, it also questions the thesis that as societies become more modern, they also become less religious. The authors look beyond the rule of law orthodoxy in their consideration of the freedom of religion as a human right and place this discussion in a more plurality-sensitive context. The book sheds more light on the informal and/or customary mechanisms that explain the limited impact of law on individuals and groups, especially in non-Western societies. The focus is on discussing how religion and the exercise of religious rights may or may not empower individuals and social groups and improve access to human rights in general. This book is important reading for academics and practitioners of law and religion, religious rights, religious diversity and cultural difference, as well as NGOs, policy makers, lawyers and advocates at multicultural jurisdictions. It offers a contemporary take on comparative legal studies, with a distinct focus on religion as an identity marker.

This interdisciplinary volume examines the relationship between secularism, freedom of religion and human rights in legal, theoretical, historical and political perspective. It brings together chapters from leading scholars of human rights, law and religion, political theory, religious studies and history, and provides insights into the state of the debate about the relationship between these concepts. Comparative in orientation, its chapters draw on constitutional and political discourses and experience not only from Western Europe and the United States, but also from India, the Arab world, and Malaysia.

Growing religious antagonisms are challenging the ultimate goal of ‘living together’ in peaceful societies. Living together explores international law responses, beginning with their historic roots, before the perspective shifts to the role of religious institutions and religious law. Contributions of different human rights bodies are analyzed, before further sections deal with the international protection of religion, the relationship between religious beliefs and freedom of expression, and the roles of other individual rights. Religion and International Law originates from the long-standing cooperation between the German and the French Societies of International Law, thus bringing together the traditions of French laicism and a cooperative German approach. Experts from Austria, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the UK complement the pan-European perspective.

Media. By James Finn.

This volume examines the legal status of religion in education, both public and non-public, in the United States and seven other nations. It will stimulate further interest, research, and debate on comparative analyses on the role of religion in schools at a time when the place of religion is of vital interest in most parts of the world. This interdisciplinary volume includes chapters by leading academicians and is designed to serve as a resource for researchers and educational practitioners, providing readers with an enhanced awareness of strategies for addressing the role of religion in rapidly diversifying educational settings. There is currently a paucity of books devoted solely to the topic written for interdisciplinary and international audiences involving educators and lawyers, and this book will clarify the legal complexities and technical language among the law, education, and religion.