The Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. XXVI, No. 1 (2010-2011)
The proceedings of a panel on the law and religion jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights at this year's annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools organized and chaired by ICLRS Associate Director Brett Scharffs has just been published in the Journal of Law and Religion. The Symposium issue includes an introduction by Professor Scharffs and articles by Professor Gerhard Robbers (Germany), Professor Malcolm Evans (United Kingdom), Dean Carolyn Evans (Australia), and Professor Zachary Calo (United States).
In the symposium introduction, "The Freedom of Religion and Belief Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights: Legal, Moral, Political, and Religious Perspectives," Professor Scharffs provides a brief introduction to the European Court of Human Rights, which recently reached the milestone of rendering its 10,000th judgment. He also provides an introduction to the Court's analytical approach to freedom of religion and belief cases that arise under Article 9 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Professor Scharffs notes that "the scope and ambition of the Court's jurisprudence has been breathtaking, especially when viewed from the United States." Nevertheless, "many questions have begun to emerge about whether the Court has established an intellectual and conceptual architecture that is up to the task of dealing with the increasingly complex cases involving religious freedom that the Court is currently facing and will soon face."
Gerhard Robbers, Professor of Public Law and Director of the Institute for European Constitutional Law at the University of Trier in Germany, contributed an article entitled, "Church Autonomy in the European Court of Human Rights – Recent Developments in Germany." Malcolm D. Evans, Professor of Public International Law, University of Bristol, in the United Kingdom, contributed an essay, "From Cartoons to Crucifixes: Current Controversies Concerning the Freedom of Religion and the Freedom of Expression before the European Court of Human Rights." Carolyn Evans, who was recently appointed Dean of the Melbourne University Law School, wrote an article, "Individual and Group Religious Freedom in the European Court of Human Rights: Cracks in the Intellectual Architecture." Zachary R. Calo, Associate Professor of Law, Valpariso Univeristy School of Law, wrote, "Pluralism, Secularism and the European Court of Human Rights." Panel presentations were also made by ICLRS Director Cole Durham, and University of Maryland law professor Peter Danchin, whose article will appear in a subsequent issue of the Journal of Law and Religion.
The Journal of Law and Religion is an inderdisciplinary, interfaith, academic journal devoted to investigating the interaction of religion and law, sponsored by the Hamline University School of Law. The symposium appears in Volume XXVI, No. 1 (2010-11), pages 249-370. The program was co-sponsored by the Section on Law and Religion, the Section on Islamic Law, and the Section on Jewish Law at the Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting: Transformative Law, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 6-10, 2010.