Religious Discrimination and Cultural Context
A Common Law Perspective

Uses a comparative analysis of case law in leading common law nations to demonstrate how religious discrimination is culturally determined.

Kerry O'Halloran (Author)

9781108423052, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 November 2017

566 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 3 cm, 0.9 kg

'This book is an intriguing and challenging assessment of the ability of the law to address the problem of religious discrimination in an increasingly multicultural society. In particular, O'Halloran explores the manner in which religion and culture are frequently intertwined in ways that often result in religious discrimination becoming a means of expressing cultural animus. The so-called 'culture wars' provide the backdrop for a study of the ways in which the moral arguments advanced by its various participants often merely serve as proxies for religious or cultural discrimination. The book contains an exhaustive survey of legal prohibitions against religious discrimination across the common law world that will prove invaluable to researchers in religion, human rights and comparative law. More importantly, O'Halloran shows that the common law has not yet developed the tools to address claims of discrimination where culture and religion are intertwined. This book is an important contribution to a debate that is sure to intensify as our society becomes ever more globalised in the years to come.' Matthew Harrington, Université de Montréal, Canada

Generations of festering culture wars, compounded by actual wars in predominantly Muslim countries, the terrorism of Isis, and the ongoing migrant crisis have all combined to make religious discrimination the most pressing challenge now facing many governments. For the leading common law nations, with their shared Christian cultural heritage balanced by a growing secularism, the threat presented by this toxic mix has the potential to destabilise civil society. This book suggests that the instances of religious discrimination, as currently legally defined, are constrained by that cultural context, exacerbated by a policy of multiculturalism, and in practice, conflated with racial, ethnic or other forms of discrimination. Kerry O'Halloran argues that many culture war issues - such as those that surround the pro-choice/pro-life debate and the rights of the LGBT community - can be viewed as rooted in the same Christian morality that underpins the law relating to religious discrimination.

Part I. Background: Introduction to Part I
1. Identity, alienation and the law: the twentieth-century legacy
2. Religion, culture and religious discrimination
Part II. Balancing Public and Private Interests: Introduction to Part II
3. Religion: the public and the private
4. The international framework and themes of religious discrimination
Part III. Contemporary Religious Discrimination in Common Law Jurisdictions: The Judicial Rulings: Introduction to Part III
5. England
6. Ireland
7. The US
8. Canada
9. Australia
10. New Zealand
Part IV. Religion and Discrimination: An Overview: Introduction to Part III
11. Themes of jurisdictional commonality and difference
12. Contexting religion, culture and discrimination
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Human rights & civil liberties law [LNDC], Human rights [JPVH], Social discrimination & inequality [JFFJ], Religion & politics [HRAM2], Religion: general [HRA]