Religion and Public Life: Theory, Law and Policy

Much recent political theory has been animated by a concern with religion and its place in politics, law and society. For example, scholars have defended opposing views about the enduring meaning, relevance and value of secularism, about the role of religious beliefs in democratic deliberation, about the extent to which legal rules ought to accommodate religious practices or beliefs, about the place of religion in education and family law, and about whether preventing religious offence and incitement to hatred can legitimately limit freedom of expression. This is somewhat surprising in that until recently there appeared to be a broad consensus about some of the central pillars of both liberal and republican political theory: the separation of church and state and the rights to both freedom of conscience and expression. Yet states across Europe and elsewhere continue to grapple with the limits of free speech in societies marked by religious conflict; religious and cultural norms that can’t be accommodated by existing laws; religious adherents who want to pass on religious traditions to their children in education; whether democratic debate should confine itself only to secular reasons; as well as ongoing disputes about public secularism versus religious endorsement or establishment. In response scholars have sought to understand how key values and principles of liberal democracy such can be reconceptualised to address these issues and rework the fundamental commitments to separation and the freedoms of conscience and expression. This workshop will bring together political theorists - as well as interested colleagues from law, philosophy and political science – to reconsider these principles and values, and their evolving place in contemporary law and politics.