The Blessings of Liberty
Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the Western Legal Tradition

A robust defense of the essential interdependence of human rights and religious freedom from antiquity to the present.

John Witte, Jr. (Author)

9781108453264, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 November 2021

300 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.49 kg

'In these eloquent essays, John Witte explores the history of the right to religious liberty and highlights the crucial role this 'first freedom' plays in securing and safeguarding human rights generally. Looking both back in time and around the world, Witte tells the story and identifies the foundations of human rights and defends their centrality in our contemporary context. In his lucid and lively way, he defends a robust pluralism, a respectful politics, and the right of religious conscience for all.' Richard W. Garnett, Notre Dame Law School

Leading legal scholar John Witte, Jr. explores the role religion played in the development of rights in the Western legal tradition and traces the complex interplay between human rights and religious freedom norms in modern domestic and international law. He examines how US courts are moving towards greater religious freedom, while recent decisions of the pan-European courts in Strasbourg and Luxembourg have harmed new religious minorities and threatened old religious traditions in Europe. Witte argues that the robust promotion and protection of religious freedom is the best way to protect many other fundamental rights today, even though religious freedom and other fundamental rights sometimes clash and need judicious balancing. He also responds to various modern critics who see human rights as a betrayal of Christianity and religious freedom as a betrayal of human rights.

Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Christian contributions to the development of rights and liberties in the Western legal tradition
2. Magna Cartas old and new: rights and liberties in the Anglo-American common law
3. Natural law and natural rights in the early Protestant tradition
4. 'A most mild and equitable establishment of religion': religious freedom in Massachusetts, 1780–1833
5. Historical foundations and enduring fundamentals of American religious freedom
6. Balancing the guarantees of no establishment and free exercise of religion in American education
7. Tax exemption of religious property: historical anomaly or valid constitutional practice? 8. Faith in Strasbourg? Religious freedom in the European Court of Human Rights
9. Meet the new boss of religious freedom: the new cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union
Concluding reflections: toward a Christian defense of human rights and religious freedom today
Index.

Subject Areas: Human rights & civil liberties law [LNDC], International human rights law [LBBR], Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Human rights [JPVH], Theology [HRLB]