LAW 764 - Law and Religion Seminar

Credits, 3 sem. hrs.

This seminar will introduce students to the central issues and theorists in the current debate regarding the relationship between law and religion in a pluralistic democratic society. In particular, the course will concentrate on a question that has received less attention in this debate: What, if any, is the role of religious beliefs in judicial decision making? In addition to analyzing these issues from the perspective of the religion clauses of First Amendment of the United States Constitution, these issues will be engaged more broadly from the perspectives of jurisprudence (philosophy of law), historical analysis, social theory, and political theory. These various perspectives will provide an opportunity to analyze the relationship between law and religion from a broad standpoint and will provide a framework for unpacking the presuppositions about law and religion that different theorists bring to this debate. The paper in this course satisfies the writing requirement.

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