Church and State: Global Perspectives: Seminar
Spring term, Block H
M 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Visiting Professor Cindy Skach
2 classroom credits LAW-90455A Spring
Liberal constitutional democracies around the world are asked to balance religious freedom and state neutrality, and to do so in an increasingly diverse and socially explosive world. Several countries have begun looking to France, Turkey and Germany for models of secularism that they hope will limit, rather than exacerbate, social conflict. And yet, from an American perspective, recent moves by European democracies to adjudicate religious symbols seem anti-liberal. What are the competing models of secularism for today's democracies? What are the possibilities, and limits, of religious liberty in increasingly diverse polities? Comparing historical developments in American and European legislation and jurisprudence, this course problematizes these questions, taking into account the growing tension between, on the one hand, a coming world order that aims at the cultural extension and legal enforcement of human rights, including freedom of religion and belief; and, on the other hand, an increased vigilance of religious practices that are considered indicative of a "clash of civilizations," resulting in restrictions on religious freedom in the name of public order.