Abstract
This chapter seeks to engage with law’s understanding of non religious commitments. When brought before the courts, these engagements are expressed and justified through the language of “culture”, “spirituality” or “philosophy”. Drawing on three recent cases from Canadian, American and British jurisdictions, this chapter contends that the non-religious commitments offer distinctive elements to understanding what non-religion and ‘world repairing’ (the latter as coined by Linda Woodhead) look like in law’s realm. This chapter suggests that particular citizenship-building capacities are developed through these case studies and also invite closer scrutiny on how we understand and articulate considerations related to time and visibility in the context of non-religious claims. Ultimately, this chapter contributes to how non-religious commitments in law are considered as ‘otherworldly’ engagements, in order to offer a more textured understanding of how different people can get along.
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Notes
- 1.
My thanks to Peter Daly, solicitor for Jordi Casamitjana, for facilitating access to certain documents in this case. The preliminary hearing for the case, cited here, determined that ethical veganism is a philosophical belief. The case was settled during the full hearing in early March 2020, where the employer recognized that the employee was not in the wrong for bringing up concerns about the pension fund investments, which did not cohere with his philosophical (and now-recognized) beliefs. See Press Association, “‘Ethical Vegan’ settles case against charity” The Guardian (March 2, 2020), online: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/mar/02/ethical-vegan-jordi-casamitjana-settles-tribunal-case-against-charity
- 2.
This point was contradicted by the claimant’s testimony and that of her daughter; ultimately, however, the judge considered that their evidence was not reliable (Serviatus , para. 47).
- 3.
The Court notes the irony of the complaint of religious indoctrination in the context of the harm experienced by those in the residential school system: Serviatus , paras. 72, 74.
- 4.
Yoga in schools hasn’t only be addressed through the Sedlock case. See Rick Rojas, “In a Plan to Bring Yoga to Alabama Schools, Stretching Is Allowed. ‘Namaste’ Isn’t” New York Times (March 9, 2020), online: www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/us/alabama-yoga-schools.html
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Dabby, D. (2021). “World Repairing” and ‘Non religious’ in Law: Antithetical Notions or New Mindsets?. In: Beaman, L.G., Stacey, T. (eds) Nonreligious Imaginaries of World Repairing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72881-6_9
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