The Rule of Law and the Place of Religion: Lessons from the Pandemic

Andrea Pin is Associate Professor of Comparative Public Law, University of Padua, and Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law & Religion Emory University

This post is part of an ongoing Series about Religion and the Rule of Law.

The 2020 pandemic has been a challenge for the rule of law as well as for religions. Perhaps even more importantly and sadly, it has made them clash with each other.

During the pandemic, many states have seen religion as a threat. These states have behaved accordingly, limiting or even preventing many religious practices in ways that go beyond just affecting human rights to even, some might say, overstepping the boundaries between church and state. For example, the Italian Government temporarily permitted temple visits but prohibited religious celebrations, including liturgies such as the Eucharist for Catholics. In other words, it did not simply recommend that religions respect social distancing—it told them and their believers what they could or could not do. This comes at a price—for religions and states alike. (more…)

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Believing in the Death Penalty?


Greg Marcar is a Research Affiliate at the Center for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Otago, where he is also a Teaching Fellow within the Theology program. Greg is a 2019 alumnus of the ICLRS Religion and the Rule of Law Young Scholars Fellowship Program.

This post is derived from Marcar’s article “Revisiting Death’s Difference: The Philosophical Anthropology of the U.S. Death Penalty and the Impossibility of Capital Due Process”, British Journal of American Legal Studies | Ahead of Print, 21 April 2020.

Introduction

Few judicial issues are as polarising in the U.S. as the death penalty. Akin perhaps to abortion, attitudes towards capital punishment can often approximate a litmus test for liberal and conservative dispositions. For many of its legal and political opponents, the death penalty is a quintessentially disproportionate punishment, and thus contrary to the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishments.” For many of its supporters, the death penalty is not only congruent with the Eighth Amendment (particularly under a historically-focussed “originalist” reading);[1] it also instantiates the moral principle that those who commit the most horrendous acts within society must face the ultimate sanction. Between these positions, the possibilities for mediation appear slim. This is also true within religious thought, where assertions concerning the dignity of every human being and the value of forgiveness are often mirrored by equally forceful assertions concerning the sanctity of human life and the need for a retributive punishment of murderers which reflects this sanctity.[2] (more…)

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