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Law and the Christian Tradition in Italy: The Legacy of the Great Jurists
Orazio Condorelli and Rafael Domingo (eds.), Routledge, 2020
Firmly rooted on Roman and Canon law, Italian legal culture, from the Middle Ages to our day, has had an impressive influence on the civil law tradition, and it is rightly regarded as “the cradle of the European legal culture.” Along with the Justinian’s compilation, the US Constitution, and the French Civil Code, the Decretum of Master Gratian or the so-called Glossa ordinaria of Accursius are one of the few legal sources that have influenced the entire world for centuries. This volume explores a millennium-long story of law and religion in Italy through a series of 26 biographical chapters. The chapters range from the first Italian civilians and canonists, Irnerius and Gratian in the early twelfth century, to the leading architect of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI. Between these two book ends, this volume offers notable case studies of familiar civilians like Bartolo, Baldo, and Gentili and familiar canonists like Hostiensis, Panormitanus, and Gasparri but also a number of other jurists in the broadest sense who deserve much more attention especially outside of Italy. All chapters have been written by distinguished legal scholars and historians from Italy and around the world. This diversity of international and methodological perspectives gives the volume its unique character; it will appeal to scholars, lawyers, and students interested in the interplay between religion and law in the era of globalization.
The Name of God in a Constitution: Meaning, Democracy, and Political Solidarity
Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, 2019
This article explores the idea that recognizing God in the Constitution of a modern liberal democracy benefits both religious and non-religious citizens through symbolizing transcendent meaning and facilitating political solidarity. It first argues that pure autonomous reason is not sufficient to support these benefits and any attempt to ‘translate’ the religious principles into secular ones will diminish the benefits for religious citizens. Second, recognizing God in a Constitution does not necessarily impose a religious character, belief, or practice which is detrimental to non-religious citizens. Rather, recognition alludes to a shared heritage and tradition and acknowledges that religious individuals and groups are legitimately part of and interact with the modern democratic state. Finally, and most importantly, recognition of God as a broader symbolic recognition of religion can enhance the democratic process by motivating virtuous conduct and opening up the political space to higher levels of meaning and the good.
Religion for Hedgehogs? An Argument against the Dworkinian Approach to Religious Freedom
Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, 2013
According to Ronald Dworkin, the right to freedom of religion is a mere implication of a more general right of ethical independence in foundational matters. For Dworkin, just as a particular religion cannot be treated as special in politics, religion cannot be considered sui generis in the political arena. This article argues that the right of religious freedom should be regarded as sui generis. The epistemological and ethical theories that support a Dworkinian approach to religious freedom are reductive and misconceived. These theories close the door to transcendent meaning and revealed religion, to a conception of religion as a fact and a value. The Dworkinian paradigm does not sufficiently protect the principles of pluralism and self-determination that are at the heart of religious freedom. Finally, this article argues that, when properly understood, the right to religious freedom is based on ethical autonomy and the unity of the person rather than on Dworkin's theories of ethical independence and the unity of value. Content: I. Introduction. II. The Dworkinian approach to religious freedom. III. A misconceived epistemology. IV. A reductive idea of dignity. V. Ethical independence versus ethical autonomy. VI. Religion with and without God. VII. From the unity of the value to the unity of the person. VIII. Conclusion.
2016
This edited volume investigates the development of the concepts and practices of " humanity " from the sixteenth century to the present. By choosing a longue-durée approach the book analyzes how shifting concepts of humanity shaped various practices and at the same time how ideas themselves were informed by these practices in the course of four hundred years. As humanity is evoked in a remarkable array of themes, the contributors deliberately focus on issues such as humanism, colonial expansion and imperialism, missions, abolitionism, international humanitarian law, humanitarianism, human rights, charity and philanthropy. In their understanding, these are crucial arenas, in which concepts and practices of humanity were sustainably shaped, defined, questioned and reconfigured. While there are a huge number of individual studies on each theme, the book seeks to connect these various fields and analyze their entanglements under the overarching theme of the idea of humanity.
A Debate on Samuel Moyn's "Christian Human Rights." Featuring Sam Moyn, John Finnis, Tom Pink and Lorenzo Zucca
Great Christian Jurists in Spanish History
Rafael Domingo and Javier Martinez-Torron (eds.) Cambridge University Press, 2018
The Great Christian Jurists series comprises a library of national volumes of detailed biographies of leading jurists, judges and practitioners, assessing the impact of their Christian faith on the professional output of the individuals studied. Spanish legal culture, developed during the Spanish Golden Age, has had a significant influence on the legal norms and institutions that emerged in Europe and in Latin America. This volume examines the lives of twenty key personalities in Spanish legal history, in particular how their Christian faith was a factor in molding the evolution of law. Each chapter discusses a jurist within his or her intellectual and political context. All chapters have been written by distinguished legal scholars from Spain and around the world. This diversity of international and methodological perspectives gives the volume its unique character; it will appeal to scholars, lawyers, and students interested in the interplay between religion and law.
A Global Law for a Global Community
In Maciej Dybowski and Rafael García Pérez (eds.). Globalization of Law. The Role of Human Dignity, Cizur Menor: Thomson Reuters Aranzadi, 2018
The international community, under the impact of globalization, is being transformed into a new community made up of new members, inspired by new principles, and based on new ideas. In the first part of this paper, I aim to justify the existence of this emerging community using four arguments that can be summarized by the Latin terms: dignitas, usus, necessitas, and bonum commune. In the second part, I argue that the new global human community comprises persons, not nation-states; that it is universal in nature; that membership in it is compulsory; and that it is incomplete, and complementary to other forms of community. These features of the new global human community will determine both the structure of its legal system and its legal authority. Content: 1. Introduction. 2. Four arguments for the existence of the global human community: a) dignitas; b) usus; c) necessitas; d) bonum commune. 3. Main features of the global human community: a) A political community of persons, not of nation-states; b) A universal community; c) A community of compulsory membership; d) An incomplete community; e) A complementary community. 4. Conclusion.
Why Spirituality Matters for Law: An Explanation
Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, 2019
In this article, I explore potential connections between law and spirituality as well as some of the legal implications of these connections. After arguing that spirituality is conceptually autonomous from religion and morality, I explain why the spiritual triad of love, communion, and gift is deeply interconnected with the legal triad of justice, agreement, and right. I also make clear why individual and collective intentions and cultural values are the main channels of interaction between law and spirituality. In the second part of the article, I argue that legal systems evolve through spiritualization, among other ways, promoting the dematerialization of the legal system, encouraging the limitation of domination, inspiring the reduction of coercion, stimulating communion and consensus in society, or increasing respect for the law and the legal systems. Spiritualization demands a recognition of the higher dimension of the law and, therefore, helps rethink, reorient, renew, reform, and reimagine law and legal systems. Finally, I sketch a pattern of five levels to measure the degree of spiritualization of concrete legal systems. This pattern can be also applied to legal actors and institutions.
Global Law and the New Global Human Community (Direito Global e a Nova Comunidade Global Humana)
Revista Brasileira de Dereito, 2017
The ideal of a universal human community living in perpetual peace and happiness was for centuries a dream of many philosophers, jurists and poets. The Stoic cosmopolitan vision, the Roman aspiration toward an empire without end, the Christian ideal of a world united by charity, the Dantian longing for a universal monarchy, and the Kantian project of world peace, among other ideas, have contributed over time to the growing sense that all human beings are members of a single universal community. Keywords: Global Law; Global Human Community Resumo: O ideal de uma comunidade humana universal vivendo em paz e felicidade perpétuas foi durante séculos o sonho de muitos filósofos, juristas e poetas. A visão cosmopolita estoica, a aspiração romana para um império infinito, o ideal cristão de mundo unido pela caridade, o dantesco anseio de uma monarquia universal e o projeto kantiano de paz mundial, além de outras ideias, contribuíram para o crescente senso de que todos os humanos são membros de uma singular comunidade universal. Palavras-chave: Direito Global; Comunidade Global Humana.
Christianity and Human Rights: Past Contributions and Future Challenges
Journal of Law and Religion, 2015
This Article analyzes the historical sources and forms of human rights in Western legal and Christian traditions, and identifies key questions about the intersections of Christianity and human rights in modern contexts. The authors identify nine distinctions between different conceptions of rights correlating with four types of jural relationships, and argue that leading historical accounts of human rights attribute "subjective" rights too narrowly to Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment legal thought. Earlier forms of classical Roman law and medieval canon law, and legal norms developed by Protestant reformers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries shaped Western human rights regimes in historically important ways, anticipating most of the rights formulation of modern liberals. In response to contemporary scholars who criticize human rights paradigms as inadequate or incompatible with Christian faith and practice, the authors argue that rights should remain a part of Christian moral, legal, and political discourse, and that Christians should remain a part of pluralistic public debates about the appropriate scope and substance of human rights protections.