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Religious Rules, State Law, and Normative Pluralism - A Comparative Overview pp 45–59Cite as

Anthropological Perspectives on the Normative and Institutional Recognition of Religion by the Law of the State

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Part of the book series: Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law ((GSCL,volume 18))

Abstract

The negative effects of economic globalisation and the emergence of a host of post-Cold War political crises, accompanied by a drastic increase of global migration, have in many parts of the world, including the US, Canada, and Europe, spurred social movements lobbying for some or greater normative and institutional recognition of religion by the law of the state. Arguing that the resultant new religion-based legal pluralism must be theorised in the light of the increasing colonisation of the life-world by law (Habermas), I then discuss the different positions scholars have taken in the trans-disciplinary debate on “legal pluralism” since the late 1950s. In the course of this chapter, I seek to make three additional points: (1) once religious norms are accommodated in state law, they usually undergo a significant degree of transformation; (2) the term “law” should be reserved for state law only, not to obfuscate the hegemonic claim of the state and of the international community of nation states in the competition between different normativities; and (3) the common blackboxing of the category of “religion” by law-makers and scholars of “legal pluralism” alike has abetted the obscuration of the unequal treatment of religious communities in many countries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “Millet” means “nation”. However, in the Ottoman Empire, “millet” did not refer to an ethnically defined nation. In contrast to the Muslim subjects of the Ottoman sultan, who constituted the “umma”, “millet” exclusively referred to specific non-Muslim communities.

  2. 2.

    Decidimos construir una nueva forma de convivencia ciudana, en diversidad y armonía con la naturaleza, para alcanzar el buen vivir, el sumak kawsay“(my translation), http://www.cicad.oas.org/fortalecimiento_institucional/legislations/PDF/EC/constitucion.pdf; accessed May 2015.

  3. 3.

    See http://www.cicad.oas.org/fortalecimiento_institucional/legislations/PDF/EC/constitucion.pdfon.pdf; accessed May 2015.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany

    Martin Ramstedt

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  1. Martin Ramstedt
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Correspondence to Martin Ramstedt .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Facoltà di Scienze Politiche e Sociali, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy

    Rossella Bottoni

  2. Università degli studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Rinaldo Cristofori

  3. Università degli studi di Milano , Milan, Italy

    Silvio Ferrari

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Ramstedt, M. (2016). Anthropological Perspectives on the Normative and Institutional Recognition of Religion by the Law of the State. In: Bottoni, R., Cristofori, R., Ferrari, S. (eds) Religious Rules, State Law, and Normative Pluralism - A Comparative Overview. Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28335-7_3

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