Andrea Pin

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 They analyze historical documents and recent cases from the United States Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Court of Justice of the European Union to articulate the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.

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 They analyze historical documents and recent cases from the United States Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Court of Justice of the European Union to articulate the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.

Dignity is a complex philosophical, theological, and constitutional concept. Courts have often progressively distanced the notion of dignity in constitutional law from its religious connotation to emphasize individual autonomy and self-determination. This process has made the notion of dignity less ambiguous, but narrower and more controversial. Dignity in Judgment: Constitutional Adjudication in Comparative Perspective compares how the apex courts of Canada, Colombia, Egypt, the EU, and Israel operationalize the concept of dignity in their case law. While these countries share an Abrahamic faith and secularization tendencies, these legal systems host a plurality of societal values, and their courts have the reputation of having an activist approach to adjudication. This book offers an in depth-analysis of key decisions that reflect or use the concept of dignity, including capital punishment, antiterrorism measures, biotechnologies, and same-sex relations to build a model of human dignity that facilitates mutual understandings among and within legal traditions. It shows how religious and secular understandings of dignity have shaped its interpretation through the decades. Insightful and thought-provoking, Dignity in Judgment explores the concept of dignity as it appears in the law by uncovering its character across different legal cultures and religious contexts.

The volume compares the efforts to instil the values and practices of the rule of law in the Middle East in the early twenty-first century with their disappointing performances in terms of safety, human rights, and, especially, religious freedom. It zooms in on Afghanistan, Egypt, and Iraq to argue that international interventions and local initiatives underestimated the ethno-religious mosaic of these countries and their political and constitutional culture. The standard notion of the rule of law values individualism, equality, rights, and courts, which hardly fit the makeup of the Middle East. Securing stability and protecting religious freedom in the region requires compromising on the rule of law; the consociational model of constitutionalism would have better chances of achieving them.

Islam is a growing presence practically everywhere in Europe. In Italy, however, Islam has met a unique model of state neutrality, religious freedom and church and state collaboration. This book gives a detailed description of the legal treatment of Muslims in Italy, contrasting it with other European states and jurisprudence, and with wider global tendencies that characterize the treatment of Islam. Through focusing on a series of case studies, the author argues that the relationship between church and state in Italy, and more broadly in Europe, should be reconsidered both to secure religious freedom and general welfare. Working on the concepts of religious freedom, state neutrality, and relationship between church and state, Andrea Pin develops a theoretical framework that combines the state level with the supranational level in the form of the European Convention of Human Rights, which ultimately shapes a unitary but flexible understanding of pluralism. This approach should better accommodate not just Muslims' needs, but religious needs in general in Italy and elsewhere.

Islam is a growing presence practically everywhere in Europe. In Italy, however, Islam has met a unique model of state neutrality, religious freedom and church and state collaboration. This book gives a detailed description of the legal treatment of Muslims in Italy, contrasting it with other European states and jurisprudence, and with wider global tendencies that characterize the treatment of Islam. Through focusing on a series of case studies, the author argues that the relationship between church and state in Italy, and more broadly in Europe, should be reconsidered both to secure religious freedom and general welfare. Working on the concepts of religious freedom, state neutrality, and relationship between church and state, Andrea Pin develops a theoretical framework that combines the state level with the supranational level in the form of the European Convention of Human Rights, which ultimately shapes a unitary but flexible understanding of pluralism. This approach should better accommodate not just Muslims' needs, but religious needs in general in Italy and elsewhere.