Law and Religion In Contemporary Society Explored at Conference

Posted on: 10 November 2015

Religious freedom under the Irish constitution, human rights and Islam and the thorny issue of patronage in education were among topics explored at a one-day conference in Trinity College Dublin on Friday, November 6, 2015.  

In recent decades Ireland has seen a series of referenda on matters central to traditional Irish identity, most recently the same sex marriage referendum, which have re-calibrated popular religiosity, irrevocably changed attitude towards institutional authority and ushered in an awareness of the centrality of religious freedom in the vision of human rights.

At the event, entitled Law and Religion: Irish Context; International Perspectives, experts from the fields of law, theology, sociology and philosophy focused on contemporary debates concerning law and religion. The conference was  jointly organised by Dr Celia Kenny of the Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff Law School and Professor Linda Hogan, Professor of Ecumenics at the Irish School of Ecumenics and Trinity Vice-Provost.

Professor Linda Hogan, commented: “The increasingly plural nature of our society poses new and important questions about the centrality of religion in the formation of Irish identity. It also presents new challenges for ethicists, lawyers and policy makers, as recent referenda have shown. It is fitting, therefore, that Trinity College Dublin is to host this important seminar on some of the central issues facing lawyers and scholars of religion as they negotiate the changes in the national and international social landscape.”

Dr Celia Kenny added: “Law and Religion is a relatively new, but rapidly growing field which encompasses a study of the legal systems of various religions, such as canon law or Shari’a law, together with the laws of States and international bodies which aim to regulate religion and belief in the public square. To better understand the increasing number of legal cases involving the manifestation of religion, there is a need for interdisciplinary collaboration. This interdisciplinary conference at Trinity is timely, given a new awareness that the process of secularisation, far from leading to the demise of religion, is the background against which the diversity of contemporary religion should be interpreted.”

Speakers included: Mr Justice Gerard Hogan who presented on The Historical Origins of Article 44 of the Constitution; Dr Eoin Daly, School of Law, NUIG who gave a talk entitled Patronage, Religious Freedom and the Politics of School Choice; Dr Neville Cox, Associate Professor, School of Law, Trinity who spoke on Blasphemy Defamation of Religion and the Public Morality Ground for Restricting Free Speech; Dr Roja Fazaelli, Assistant Professor in Islamic Civilisations, Trinity who presented on Human Rights, Islam and Western Democracies; Professor Gerry Whyte, Professor of Law, Trinity who gave a talk entitled Judicial Interpretation of Religious Freedom under the Irish Constitution and Professor Silvio Ferrari, Professor of Law and Religion, University of Milan who presented on The decline of Europe and its Impact on the Relations between States and Religions.

Media Coverage:

Irish Times, November 10, 2015