Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective:Legal Perspectives

Abstract

(John Witte, Jr. & Johan D. van der Vyver eds., 1996). I. INTRODUCTION Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives (Legal Perspectives),1 a comprehensive volume of essays on the global state of religious liberty, is the companion book to an equally thorough volume by the same editors, Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Religious Perspectives (Religious Perspectives).2 The Religious Perspectives volume addresses the religious sources and dimensions of religious rights, while the Legal Perspectives volume addresses the legal sources and dimensions of these same freedoms.3These volumes are the product of an ongoing project on religion, democracy, and human rights undertaken by the Law and Religion Program of Emory University. After being assured by one of the books' editors that each volume stands alone in its individual contribution to understanding the state of religious freedom in the world today,4 this Book Note undertakes the nonetheless daunting task of reviewing only the Legal Perspectives half of this impressive two volume collection of essays. Before a full review of the collection can be discussed, some background information is needed. Legal Perspectives contains more than twenty contributions. Sandwiched between a short preface by former President Jimmy Carter and a closing essay by Judge John T. Noonan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuits are individual chapters authored by a distinguished group of international scholars, jurists, and activists.The authors, all specialists in the field of religious freedom, are mostly engaged in analyzing religious liberty regimes in specific countries or regions, while a few authors contribute chapters addressing broader issues of international religious liberty such as United Nations standards. In the only other American legal commentary on this book to date, a review essay, Professor Marci Hamilton concludes that Legal Perspectives poses a direct challenge to the presuppositions of federalism, popular sovereignty, and separation of powers that are fundamental in American constitutional jurisprudence. Hamilton contends that the goal of achieving a universal standard of religious liberty through the adoption everywhere of norms distilled from international legal culture renders obsolete some of the founding principles of American freedom.6It is true that international human rights instruments implicitly reject principles like federalism in favor of universal standards of religious liberty.7 However, this Book Note contests Professor Hamilton's suggestion that Legal Perspectives counsels such a rejection.8 II. RELIGIOUS HUMAN RIGHTS IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: LEGAL PERSPECTIVES-A REVIEW A. Organization of the Volume Worthwhile review of such a far-reaching work requires an effort to compartmentalize the essays and careful attention to the editors' organization of the volume as a whole. For the most part, the organization of the book is praiseworthy. While each chapter stands alone as an intriguing and significant work, the volume also provides the reader with a structure that facilitates broad recognition and contemplation of issues presented by the compilation. Unfortunately, individual assessment of every chapter in the volume is beyond the scope of this Book Note.9 In Legal Perspectives, the authors have included pieces that roughly fall into one of three categories:lo (1) four pieces that provide analytical frameworks to aid the reader struggling with the difficult issue of religious liberty internationally;ll (2) two essays that analyze and portray the role of important actors in the international sphere: nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the media;l2 and (3) the majority of the volume that includes individual essays analyzing the religious liberty regimes in specific countries or regions. This third category of essays, each written by an author with expertise on religious liberty issues in the subject country (often their own), makes the volume stand out as a commendable tool for comparative legal research. …

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