The Legal Foundations of Religious Freedom documents the essential interdependence of human rights and religious freedom in the West, from antiquity to the present. In The Legal Foundations of Religious Freedom, authors John Witte Jr. and Andrea Pin explore the Christian and secular origins of rights in the Western legal tradition and the complex interplay between human rights and religious freedom norms in modern law, religion, and culture. They analyze historical documents and recent cases from the United States Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Court of Justice of the European Union to articulate the historical, theoretical, and legal tension of human rights and religious freedom on both sides of the Atlantic. The authors contrast the serious threats to new religious minorities and traditional religious accommodations with firm new protections of religious freedoms in both Europe and America. Ultimately calling for robust protection of the fundamental rights and liberties of all people and faiths, Witte and Pin caution that religious freedom and other human rights claims can only do so much to bridge the widening cultural divides over law and religion in modern Western societies. It is our responsibility to embrace the fundamental goods of dignity, fraternity, and justice.
John Witte Jr. is Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law, McDonald Distinguished Professor of Religion, and Faculty Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. He is the author of The Blessings of Liberty: Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the Western Legal Tradition and co-author of Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment. Andrea Pin is professor of comparative law at the University of Padova, Italy. He is the author of The Legal Treatment of Muslim Minorities in Italy: Islam and the Neutral State and Religious Freedom without the Rule of Law: The Constitutional Odysseys of Afghanistan, Egypt, and Iraq and the Fate of the Middle East.
Introduction Part 1. Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the Western Legal Tradition 1. Introduction 2. The Development of Human Rights 3. Human Rights in Early Modern Europe 4. The Development of Religious Freedom 5. Religious Freedom in the International Human Rights Framework 6. Conclusions Part 2. Religious Freedom in the Contemporary West 7. Introduction 8. Religious Freedom in the Supreme Court of the United States 9. Religious Freedom and Human Rights in Europe 10. Religious Freedom Cases in the European Court of Human Rights 11. Religious Freedom in the Court of Justice of the European Union 12. Comparing Religious Freedom in the American and European Courts 13. The Myth of Religious Neutrality in the West 14. Islam in the West 15. Conclusions Part 3. The Future of Human Rights and Religious Freedom 16. Introduction 17. Critics of Human Rights. Doubting the Skeptics 18. Critics of Religious Freedom 19. Conflict, Disagreement and Reconciliation 20. Human Dignity as the Foundation of Human Rights and Religious Freedom 21. Conclusions
"The ideal entry point for anyone wanting to gain a general and authoritative understanding of the history and development of religious liberty in Europe and the United States from its origins to the latest judicial developments." - Paolo G. Carozza, co-author of Regional Protection of Human Rights
