Religion, Law, and the Land

Religion, Law, and the Land PDF Author: Brian E. Brown
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 031300336X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Book Description
Examining a series of court decisions made during the 1980s regarding the legal claims of several Native American tribes who attempted to protect ancestrally revered lands from development schemes by the federal government, this book looks at important questions raised about the religious status of land. The tribes used the First Amendment right of free exercise of religion as the basis of their claim, since governmental action threatened to alter the land which served as the primordial sacred reality without which their derivative religious practices would be meaningless. Brown argues that a constricted notion of religion on the part of the courts, combined with a pervasive cultural predisposition towards land as private property, marred the Constitutional analysis of the courts to deprive the Native American plaintiffs of religious liberty. Brown looks at four cases, which raised the issue at the federal district and appellate court levels, centered on lands in Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota, and Arizona; then it considers a fifth case regarding land in northwestern California, which ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court. In all cases, the author identifies serious deficiencies in the judicial evaluations. The lower courts applied a conception of religion as a set of beliefs and practices that are discrete and essentially separate from land, thus distorting and devaluing the fundamental basis of the tribal claims. It was this reductive fixation of land as property, implicit in the rulings of the first four cases, that became explicitly sanctioned and codified in the Supreme Court's decision in Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association of 1988. In reaching such a position, the Supreme Court injudiciously engaged in a policy determination to protect government land holdings, and did so through a shocking repudiation of its own long established jurisprudential procedure in cases concerning the free exercise of religion.

Religion, Law, and the Land

Religion, Law, and the Land PDF Author: Brian Brown
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Freedom of religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Examining a series of court decisions made during the 1980s regarding the legal claims of several Native American tribes who attempted to protect ancestrally revered lands from development schemes by the federal government, this book looks at important questions raised about the religious status of land. The tribes used the First Amendment right of free exercise of religion as the basis of their claim, since governmental action threatened to alter the land which served as the primordial sacred reality without which their derivative religious practices would be meaningless. Brown argues that a constricted notion of religion on the part of the courts, combined with a pervasive cultural predisposition towards land as private property, marred the Constitutional analysis of the courts to deprive the Native American plaintiffs of religious liberty.

RLUIPA Reader

RLUIPA Reader PDF Author: Michael S. Giaimo
Publisher: American Bar Association
ISBN: 9781604423587
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
This book provides a general background of RLUIPA (Religious Land Use and Institionalized Persons Act) so that the reader understands the context in which RLUIPA was passed by Congress in 2000, as well as a very practical discussion about RLUIPA litigation from the perspective of the church and the perspective of the community. The book offers information and advice on initiating a RLUIPA lawsuit, as well as defending against a RLUIPA lawsuit.

Religious Property Disputes and the Law

Religious Property Disputes and the Law PDF Author: Daniel P. Dalton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781641059657
Category : Church property
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
"This book on religious property law covers three narrow issues of religious property disputes: (1) the local church versus a denomination over the ownership of land and real property when the church leaves the denomination, (2) the ownership of religious property within an independent church, and (3) the religious entity versus a local community engaged in a land use and zoning dispute"--

Religion, Law, USA

Religion, Law, USA PDF Author: Isaac Weiner
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479891398
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Book Description
Offers insight into the complex relationship between religion and law in contemporary America Why religion? Why law? Why now? In recent years, the United States has witnessed a number of high-profile court cases involving religion, forcing Americans to grapple with questions regarding the relationship between religion and law. This volume maps the contemporary interplay of religion and law within the study of American religions. What rights are protected by the Constitution’s free exercise clause? What are the boundaries of religion, and what is the constitutional basis for protecting some religious beliefs but not others? What characterizes a religious-studies approach to religion and law today? What is gained by approaching law from the vantage point of religious studies, and what does attention to the law offer back to scholars of religion? Religion, Law, USA considers all these questions and more. Each chapter considers a specific keyword in the study of religion and law, such as “conscience,” “establishment,” “secularity,” and “personhood.” Contributors consider specific case studies related to each term, and then expand their analyses to discuss broader implications for the practice and study of American religion. Incorporating pieces from leading voices in the field, this book is an indispensable addition to the scholarship on religion and law in America.

Law and Religion in Contemporary Society

Law and Religion in Contemporary Society PDF Author: Peter W. Edge
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Book Description
This work enriches the analysis of law and religion in society by emphasising a dimension involving the relationship between religious communities and religious individuals.

International Law and Religion

International Law and Religion PDF Author: Martti Koskenniemi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019880587X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 481

Book Description
This collective volume brings together contributions by academics in various fields of law and the humanities, in order to tackle the complex interactions between international law and religion. The originality and the variety of approaches makes this book a must-have for academics planning to approach the topic in the future.

Religion and the State in American Law

Religion and the State in American Law PDF Author: Boris I. Bittker
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107071828
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1001

Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive overview of religion and government in the United States, providing historical context to contemporary issues.

The Transition of Religion to Culture in Law and Public Discourse

The Transition of Religion to Culture in Law and Public Discourse PDF Author: Lori G. Beaman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000050556
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
This book explores the recent trend toward the transformation of religious symbols and practices into culture in Western democracies. Analyses of three legal cases involving religion in the public sphere are used to illuminate this trend: a municipal council chamber; a town hall; and town board meetings. Each case involves a different national context—Canada, France and the United States—and each illustrates something interesting about the shape-shifting nature of religion, specifically its flexibility and dexterity in the face of the secular, the religious and the plural. Despite the differences in national contexts, in each instance religion is transformed into culture or heritage by the courts to justify or excuse its presence and to distance the state from the possibility that it is violating legal norms of distance from religion. The cultural practice or symbol is represented as a shared national value or activity. Transforming the ‘Other’ into ‘Us’ through reconstitution is also possible. Finally, anxiety about the ‘Other’ becomes part of the story of rendering religion as culture, resulting in the impugning of anyone who dares to question the putative shared culture. The book will be essential reading for students, academics and policy-makers working in the areas of sociology of religion, religious studies, socio-legal studies, law and public policy, constitutional law, religion and politics, and cultural studies.

Worship and Wilderness

Worship and Wilderness PDF Author: Lloyd Burton
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 0299180832
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
Questions about land use, conservation, and preservation—already so perplexing and contentious—take on a new complexity and greater urgency when the land in question is understood as sacred. This is a view increasingly held, as adherents of mainstream religions come to recognize what indigenous peoples knew centuries ago—that the sacred inheres in nature itself. What such a trend means and how it involves the forces of culture, religion, and constitutional law (especially First Amendment clauses concerning the free exercise of religion) are considered with a remarkable breadth and depth of understanding in this important new work. Drawing on case studies of national parks and monuments, national forests, and other public lands and resources, Lloyd Burton gives a clear and comprehensive account of how the intertwining influences of culture, religion, and law have affected the management of public lands and resources in the recent past and how they may do so in the future. In a unique and unprecedented way, his book weaves together teachings on nature and the sacred among indigenous and immigrant culture groups in the United States; the relevant constitutional history of religion and government action; and analysis of contemporary conflicts over culture, religion, and public lands management. As such, Worship and Wilderness is essential reading not only for public land managers and environmental policy makers but also for anyone interested in the growing significance of religious interests in the use of resources that constitute our national commons and our common natural heritage.