Deaton, Deenen, and Integrity and Role of Catholic Social Teaching

Ingeborg G. Gabriel is a professor emerita at the University of Vienna.

The debate in the United States and beyond on liberalism has taken a rather disconcerting turn, in which concepts from Catholic Social Teaching (CST) are invoked. The following post is an attempt to sketch this phenomenon drawing on ideas of economist Angus Deaton and philosopher Patrick Deneen. Can CST, which is also high on the agenda of the present pontiff Leo XIV, cut a trail through the jungle of these ideas?

(more…)

Continue Reading Deaton, Deenen, and Integrity and Role of Catholic Social Teaching

Recent Developments in U.S. Free Exercise Jurisprudence for Native American Religion

Michalyn Steele is Marion G. Romney Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University. This post is based on a presentation given at the ICLRS 32nd Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 6 October 2025.

Several recent unpublished U.S. federal court opinions have responded to claims under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and the U.S. Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause by incarcerated Native American practitioners. The RLUIPA, enacted by Congress in 2000, provides that governments may not impose a substantial burden on the religious exercise of persons confined to institutions unless the government can demonstrate that the burden is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is narrowly tailored to further that interest. Incarcerated practitioners of Native American religion have been able to get access to sweat lodges and other aspects of Native religious practice and to have certain religious practices accommodated under the law.

(more…)

Continue Reading Recent Developments in U.S. Free Exercise Jurisprudence for Native American Religion

Religious Freedom and Exclusion in Religious Legal Systems: Cases of Bahá’ís in Iran and Ahmadis in Pakistan

Akif Tahiiev is a post-doctoral research fellow at Goethe University Frankfurt. This post is based on his presentation at the ICLRS 32nd Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 7 October 2025, at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School.

Introduction

One of the most significant challenges facing contemporary religious systems is the regulation of the rights of religious minorities. Legal systems approach this issue in varied ways, reflecting differences in political philosophy, historical development, and religious traditions. Some states adopt closed-list strategies, explicitly enumerating the communities entitled to recognition. Others employ more universalist frameworks, whereby secular law applies to all, but recognized groups are granted additional rights, most often in areas such as personal status. These divergent approaches shape not only the rights afforded to minorities but also the mechanisms through which exclusion is enforced.

(more…)

Continue Reading Religious Freedom and Exclusion in Religious Legal Systems: Cases of Bahá’ís in Iran and Ahmadis in Pakistan