Introduction

In the twenty-first century, the interaction of law and religion has rarely been far from the global news headlines. Academics have paid increased attention to the international and national laws affecting religion, extending attention beyond constitutional provisions concerning religion to explore human rights, discrimination law, criminal law and other provisions that affect individual and collective religious freedom. ¹ Some consideration has also been given to the laws, rules and norms generated by religious groups themselves, which may be referred to for convenience as ‘religious law’. However, most of this literature has focused on the interaction and compatibility of religious laws with international and national laws. ² Less attention has been given to the study of religious laws in their own right as systems of law. In addition, where such work has taken place it has tended to focus upon one religious tradition in isolation. There are important works on Islamic law, Jewish law, Christian law and Hindu law as well as works focusing upon traditions within each faith. ³ However, to date, in the Anglo-American legal literature, there has been little attempt to provide a comparative study of religious laws; to take a step back from the detailed study of particular religious traditions to reflect upon the similarities and differences between religious legal systems and whether it is useful to talk of a category of religious law. ⁴ More attention to this issue has been devoted in legal texts written in other languages, but they have had limited circulation among Anglophone academic circles. ⁵