Slotte & Haskell: Christianity and International Law: An Introduction

Pamela Slotte (Åbo Akademi Univ.) & John D. Haskell (Univ. of Manchester) have published Christianity and International Law: An Introduction (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This cross-disciplinary collaboration offers historical and contemporary scholarship exploring the interface of Christianity and international law. Christianity and International Law aims to understand and move past arguments, narratives and tropes that commonly frame law-religion studies in global governance. Readers are introduced to a range of confessional and critical perspectives explicitly engaging a diverse range of methodological and theoretical orientations to rethink how we experience and find ourselves caught within the phenomena of Christianity and international law.

Cismas & Heffes: Not the Usual Suspects: Religious Leaders as Influencers of International Humanitarian Law Compliance

Ioana Cismas (Univ. of York - Law) & Ezequiel Heffes (Geneva Call) have posted Not the Usual Suspects: Religious Leaders as Influencers of International Humanitarian Law Compliance (Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

It is undeniable that the effectiveness of international humanitarian law (IHL) faces challenges from different quarters. To address these, humanitarian organizations have, in the main, pursued a direct engagement strategy with the parties to a conflict. Although this has remained the dominant strategy to date, in the last two decades the humanitarian sector has, on an ad hoc basis and without the benefit of a solid evidence base, engaged other societal actors identified as having the potential to influence parties to armed conflict, and among them religious leaders. This chapter addresses the role of these leaders in influencing compliance (or lack thereof) with IHL by States and non-State armed groups. In particular, two issues are explored: 1) what makes religious leaders influential among their constituencies?, and 2) how can they be useful actors to increase respect for IHL in armed conflict?

Khalilieh: Islamic Law of the Sea: Freedom of Navigation and Passage Rights in Islamic Thought

Hassan S. Khalilieh (Univ. of Haifa) has published Islamic Law of the Sea: Freedom of Navigation and Passage Rights in Islamic Thought (Cambridge Univ. Press 2019). Here's the abstract:

The doctrine of modern law of the sea is commonly believed to have developed from Renaissance Europe. Often ignored though is the role of Islamic law of the sea and customary practices at that time. In this book, Hassan S. Khalilieh highlights Islamic legal doctrine regarding freedom of the seas and its implementation in practice. He proves that many of the fundamental principles of the pre-modern international law governing the legal status of the high seas and the territorial sea, though originating in the Mediterranean world, are not a necessarily European creation. Beginning with the commonality of the sea in the Qur'an and legal methods employed to insure the safety, security, and freedom of movement of Muslim and aliens by land and sea, Khalilieh then goes on to examine the concepts of the territorial sea and its security premises, as well as issues surrounding piracy and its legal implications as delineated in Islamic law.

Chaumette & Haupais: Religion et droit international

Anne-Laure Chaumette (Université Paris Nanterre - Law) & Nicolas Haupais (Université d'Orléans - Law) have published Religion et droit international (Pedone 2019). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

A une époque où la question religieuse occupe une place croissante au sein du débat public, cet ouvrage s’attache à déterminer l’influence du fait religieux dans le champ du droit international. Issu d’un colloque organisé sous l’égide du Centre de Recherche Juridique Pothier de l’Université d’Orléans et du Centre de droit international de Nanterre, il vient prolonger les réflexions menées en 2014 lors d’une précédente manifestation portant sur les rapports entre le politique et le religieux dans la construction et l’évolution de l’État. Il entend vérifier si et dans quelle mesure la religion a pu être et est encore un facteur structurant du droit international (et des relations internationales). La religion a-t-elle encore, dans le champ du droit international, un rôle dans son élaboration, la formation des normes, la manière dont il est appréhendé ? La religion exerce-t-elle une quelconque influence dans la formation de l’État ? dans le règlement pacifique des différends ou le maintien de la paix ? Dans quelle mesure, les entités confessionnelles internationales et les confréries religieuses sont-elles des acteurs influents des relations internationales ? Telles sont quelques-unes des questions auxquelles les contributions, ici réunies, s’essayent de répondre.

Papa, Pascale, & Gervasi: La tutela internazionale della libertà religiosa: problemi e prospettive

Maria Irene Papa (Sapienza Università di Roma – Law), Giuseppe Pascale (Università degli studi di Trieste – Political and Social Sciences), & Mario Gervasi (Sapienza Università di Roma – Law) have published La tutela internazionale della libertà religiosa: problemi e prospettive (Jovene Editore 2019). Contents include:

• Maria Irene Papa, La tutela della libertà religiosa nel sistema delle Nazioni Unite: quadro normativo e meccanismi di controllo
• Gabriele Asta, Alcune riflessioni sulla libertà religiosa nei sistemi europeo e interamericano di tutela dei diritti umani
• Mario Gervasi, La libertà religiosa nelle regioni africana e asiatica tra universalismo e relativismo culturale
• Alessandra Mignolli, Eredità e libertà. Il ruolo della libertà religiosa nel diritto dell’Unione europea
• Lucia Graziano, Santa Sede e Comunità internazionale: la cura della ‘casa comune’ nell’era della global governance
• Francesca Angelini, L’influenza del diritto internazionale sulla tutela costituzionale della libertà di religione in Italia
• Fabrizio Marongiu Buonaiuti, Libertà di religione e circolazione internazionale degli status personali e familiari
• Giovanni Carlo Bruno, Il rapporto tra libertà di religione e libertà di espressione: satira, blasfemia ed hate speech
• Angelo Schillaci, Coscienza e diritti. I comportamenti obiettori tra libertà e solidarietà: il caso delle unioni omosessuali
• Giulia Ciliberto & Fulvio Maria Palombino, L’esposizione dei simboli religiosi
• Fabio Franceschi, La libertà religiosa nei Paesi islamici dell’Africa mediterranea fra democrazia, secolarizzazione e sharî‘a
• Marina Mancini, La tutela internazionale dei luoghi di culto nei conflitti armati
• Giuseppe Pascale, L’evoluzione storica della tutela internazionale delle minoranze religiose
• Francesco Cherubini, Le persecuzioni religiose nel contesto della protezione internazionale
• Marcella Distefano, Il diritto dei minori alla libertà di religione: ‘una protezione nella protezione’
• Azzurra Muccione, Il diritto dei detenuti di praticare liberamente la propria religione
• Joseph Kazadi Mpiana, La discrimination en matière d’accès aux hautes fonctions publiques pour motifs religieux dans certains États africains

Bhuta: Freedom of Religion, Secularism, and Human Rights

Nehal Bhuta (Univ. of Edinburgh - Law) has published Freedom of Religion, Secularism, and Human Rights (Oxford Univ. Press 2019). Contents include:

• Nehal Bhuta, What Should Freedom of Religion Become?
• Rajeev Bhargava, Reimagining Secularism: Respect, Domination and Principled Distance
• Nathan J. Brown, Citizenship, Religious Rights, and State Identity in Arab Constitutions: Who is Free and What Are They Free to Do?
• Carolyn Evans & Timnah Rachel Baker, Communal Religious Rights or Majoritarian Oppression: Conversion and Proselytism Laws in Malaysia and India
• Samuel Moyn, Too Much Secularism? Religious Freedom in European History and the European Court of Human Rights
• Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, US Exceptionalism in the Regulation of Religion
• Lorenzo Zucca, Rethinking Secularism in Europe

de la Rasilla del Moral & Shahid: International Law and Islam: Historical Explorations

Ignacio de la Rasilla del Moral (Wuhan Univ. - Law) & Ayesha Shahid (Coventry Univ. - Law) have published International Law and Islam: Historical Explorations (Brill | Nijhoff 2019). Contents include:

• Ignacio de la Rasilla, Islam and the Global Turn in the History of International Law
• Ignacio de la Rasilla, The Protean Historical Mirror of International Law
• Michelle Burgis-Kasthala, How Should International Lawyers Study Islamic Law and Its Contribution to International Law?
• Ayesha Shahid, An Exploration of the ‘Global’ History of International Law: Some Perspectives from within the Islamic Legal Traditions
• John D. Haskell, Subjectivity and Structures: The Challenges of Methodology in the Study of the History of International Law and Religion
• Robert Kolb, The Basis of Obligation in Treaties of Ancient Cultures – Pactum Est Servandum?
• Jean Allain, Khadduri as Gatekeeper of the Islamic Law of Nations?
• Ignacio Forcada Barona, In Search of the Lost Influence: Islamic Thinkers and the Spanish Origins of International Law
• Pierre-Alexandre Cardinal & Frédéric Mégret, The Other ‘Other’: Moors, International Law and the Origin of the Colonial Matrix
• Luigi Nuzzo, Law, Religion and Power: Texts and Discourse of Conquest
• Ilias Bantekas, Land Rights in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman State Succession Treaties
• Haniff Ahamat & Nizamuddin Alias, The Evolution of the Personality of the Malay Sultanate States
• Matthias Vanhullebusch, On the Abodes of War and Peace in the Islamic Law of War: Fact or Fiction?
• Mohamed Badar, Ahmed Al-Dawoody & Noelle Higgins, The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law of Rebellion: Its Significance to the Current International Humanitarian Law Discourse

Arlettaz: Les groupes religieux, objet du droit international

Fernando Arlettaz has published Les groupes religieux, objet du droit international (Universitaires d'Aix-Marseille 2018). Here's the abstract:

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Au milieu du XXe siècle, le paradigme de la sécularisation annonçait, sinon la disparition totale, au moins la perte de toute influence du religieux sur le politique. Quelques décennies après, un brusque virement de la perception dominante s’était produit. Le (re)surgissement des fondamentalismes dans les principaux courants religieux de la planète demandait alors une révision de la réconfortante vision d’un monde libre de virulences religieuses et marchant droitement vers un avenir de progrès. Le paradigme du choc des civilisations s’est donc substitué à celui de la sécularisation.

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Scrutant de manière critique ces deux paradigmes, cet ouvrage propose une analyse de la place des groupes religieux en droit international. De la liberté collective de religion aux persécutions religieuses, et de la protection des groupes religieux minoritaires à la poursuite pénale des responsables des crimes contre ces groupes, les différentes formes d’encastrement du religieux à l’intérieur du discours juridique international sont abordées. L’ouvrage met en exergue les subtils compromis politiques sous-jacents à la construction de ce discours, les formes juridiques n’étant qu’une des manifestations d’un équilibre toujours instable entre le religieux et le séculier.

Call for Papers: Religion and Ethnicity on the International Bench

PluriCourts at the University of Oslo, in cooperation with the Europa Instituut at Leiden University, has issued a call for papers for a conference on "Religion and Ethnicity on the International Bench," to take place October 4-5, 2018. The call is here.

Conference: Religion and International Law - La religion et le droit international (Reminder)

On November 4-5, 2016, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationales Recht and the Société française pour le droit international will hold their biennial joint conference, in Regensburg. The theme is: "Religion and International Law – La religion et le droit international." The program is here. Preceding the conference, on November 2-3, is a workshop for young researchers on the topic "Le droit international face aux défis culturels/ Völkerrecht vor kulturellen Herausforderungen." That program is here.

Conference: Religion und Völkerrecht - La religion et le droit international (DGIR/SFDI Joint Meeting)

On November 4-5, 2016, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationales Recht and the Société française pour le droit international will hold a joint meeting on "Religion und Völkerrecht – La religion et le droit international," in Regensburg. The program is here. Prior to the conference, from November 2-3, there will be a joint workshop for young researchers, focusing on the topic "Le droit international face aux défis culturels - Völkerrecht vor kulturellen Herausforderungen." The program is here.

Schouppe: La dimension institutionnelle de la liberté de religion dans la jurisprudence de la Cour europénne des droits de l'homme

Jean-Pierre Schouppe (Université pontificale de la Sainte-Croix - Law) has published La dimension institutionnelle de la liberté de religion dans la jurisprudence de la Cour europénne des droits de l'homme (Pedone 2015). Here's the abstract:

La liberté de religion prend de plus en plus d’importance dans la jurisprudence de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme. Bien que le centre de gravité historique de ce droit fondamental réside dans sa dimension individuelle, les juges sont fréquemment confrontés à des aspects « institutionnels » ou communautaires de la liberté de religion : des droits revenant aux groupements religieux comme tels. En quête des prémisses de cette liberté, le chapitre premier retrace les apports spécifiques du christianisme, du judaïsme et de l’islam en la matière. Les principaux instruments de droit international, universels et européens, ainsi que la jurisprudence de la Cour de Justice de l’Union européenne, sont abordés au chapitre 2 du point de vue de la liberté de religion collective et institutionnelle comme la toile de fond nécessaire à l’activité de la Cour de Strasbourg. Le chapitre 3 examine l’article 9 de la CEDH ainsi que d’autres articles protégeant des droits connexes à la liberté de religion avant de se pencher sur la notion de groupement religieux, dont la distinction d’avec les sectes (dangereuses) s’avère souvent problématique. Les deux derniers chapitres sont consacrés à une étude systématique de la jurisprudence de Strasbourg depuis l’admission, en 1979, de la première requête d’une « église requérante ». Le versant procédural, puis les droits substantiels sont successivement abordés. Leurs contenus seront analysés selon un double axe : d’abord, la liberté d’« existence » du groupement, puis les plus nombreuses facettes de sa liberté d’« action » ou de son « autonomie ». Plus de 200 arrêts et décisions de la Cour sont analysés.

Temperman: Religious Hatred and International Law

Jeroen Temperman (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam - Law) has published Religious Hatred and International Law: The Prohibition of Incitement to Violence or Discrimination (Cambridge Univ. Press 2015). Here's the abstract:

The UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights obliges state parties to prohibit any advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination or violence. This book traces the origins of this provision and proposes an actus reus for this offence. The question of whether hateful incitement is a prohibition per se or also encapsulates a fundamental 'right to be protected against incitement' is extensively debated. Also addressed is the question of how to judge incitement. Is mens rea required to convict someone of advocating hatred, and if so, for what degree of intent? This analysis also includes the paramount question if and to what extent content and/or context factors ought to be decisive. The author extensively engages with comparative domestic law and compares the workings of the UN Human Rights Committee with those of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the European Court of Human Rights.

Hurd: Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (Northwestern Univ. - Political Science) has published Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion (Princeton Univ. Press 2015). Here's the abstract:

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In recent years, North American and European nations have sought to legally remake religion in other countries through an unprecedented array of international initiatives. Policymakers have rallied around the notion that the fostering of religious freedom, interfaith dialogue, religious tolerance, and protections for religious minorities are the keys to combating persecution and discrimination. Beyond Religious Freedom persuasively argues that these initiatives create the very social tensions and divisions they are meant to overcome.

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd looks at three critical channels of state-sponsored intervention: international religious freedom advocacy, development assistance and nation building, and international law. She shows how these initiatives make religious difference a matter of law, resulting in a divide that favors forms of religion authorized by those in power and excludes other ways of being and belonging. In exploring the dizzying power dynamics and blurred boundaries that characterize relations between "expert religion," "governed religion," and "lived religion," Hurd charts new territory in the study of religion in global politics.

Evans, Petkoff, & Rivers: Changing Nature of Religious Rights under International Law

Malcolm Evans (Univ. of Bristol - Law), Peter Petkoff (Regent's Park College, Oxford - Centre for Christianity and Culture), & Julian Rivers (Univ. of Bristol - Law) have published Changing Nature of Religious Rights under International Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2015). Contents include:

• Malcolm Evans, Peter Petkoff & Julian Rivers, Introduction
• Mary Ann Glendon, Religious Freedom in the Secular Age
• Heiner Bielefeldt, Towards a Clear Conceptualization of Freedom of Religion or Belief
• Malcolm Evans, Freedom of Religion or Belief- New Challenges
• Michael Wiener, Thirty Years 1981 Declaration as Reflected in Twenty -Five Years Mandate Practice of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
• Natan Lerner, Incitement to Hatred and the 1981 UN Declaration on Religion or Belief
• Elizabeth Cassidy & Cathy Cosman, A View from the United States: US Bilateral and Multilateral Promotion of Freedom of Religion or Belief
• Thomas Krapf, Lost Opportunities and Missed Targets: Notes on Freedom of Religion or Belief in the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe
• Knox Thames, Old is New: Europe and Freedom of Religion or Belief
• Dennis de Jong, The Contribution of the European Parliment to the Protection of Freedom of Religion or Belief through the External Relations of the European Union
• Cristopher McCrudden, Faith-Based Non-Governmental Organizations in the Public Square
• Peter Petkoff, Translating Across Secular and Religious Legal Cultures and Public International Law
• David Jaeger, The Holy See's Perspective on Religious Freedom
• Gary Wilton, Religion, Human Rights and Foreign Policy
• Cole Durham & Elisabeth Clark, Corporate Religious Freedom
• Ilias Bantekas, Freedom of Religion in Transnational Contract and Commercial Transactions

Cismas: Religious Actors and International Law

Ioana Cismas (New York Univ. - Center for Human Rights and Global Justice) has published Religious Actors and International Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2014). Here’s the abstract:

This book assesses whether a new category of actors-religious actors-has been constructed within international law. Religious actors, through their interpretations of the religion(s) they are associated with, uphold and promote, or indeed may transform, potentially oppressive structures or discriminatory patterns. This study moves beyond the concern that religious texts and practices may be incompatible with international law, to provide an innovative analysis of how religious actors themselves are accountable under international law for the interpretations they choose to put forward.

The book defines religious actors as comprising religious states, international organizations, and non-state entities that assume the role of interpreting religion and so claim a 'special' legitimacy anchored in tradition or charisma. Cutting across the state / non-state divide, this definition allows the full remit of religious bodies to be investigated. It analyses the crucial question of whether religious actors do in fact operate under different international legal norms to non-religious states, international organizations, or companies. To that end, the Holy See-Vatican, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and churches and religious organizations under the European Convention on Human Rights regime are examined in detail as case studies.

The study ultimately establishes that religious actors cannot be seen to form an autonomous legal category under international law: they do not enjoy special or exclusive rights, nor incur lesser obligations, when compared to their respective non-religious peers. Going forward, it concludes that a process of two-sided legitimation may be at stake: religious actors will need to provide evidence for the legality of their religious interpretations to strengthen their legitimacy, and international law itself may benefit from religious actors fostering its legitimacy in different cultural contexts.