Content area
Full Text
Law and Religion in Multicultural Societies. By Rubya Mehdi, Hanna Petersen, Erik Reenberg Sand, and Gordon R. Woodman, eds. Copenhagen: Djøf Publishing, 2008. Pp. 246. $64.00 paper.
The interaction between law and religion is of academic interest for at least two separate reasons. First, religion remains an important social force, even in those countries that constitutionally hold themselves out as being secular and even in those countries where the majority of the population do not adhere to any institutionalised form of religion. How compelling that social force is varies from country to country, but it is always of some significance. Second, religion is frequently itself a source of law, offering a conceptual challenge to those who see law as being something that is solely state-based. This volume of essays, which looks at law and religion in a variety of countries and continents, provides valuable findings that will add to arguments in both these areas of study.
The focus of the individual essays in the volume takes a variety of forms. Chaudhary's concern is with the tensions that exist in Pakistan, where different legal traditions compete and where, in the author's view, customary law prevails. Foblets, on the other hand, analyzes the provisions of the...