1 This article is an expansion of my lecture at the Silver Jubilee Conference of the Ecclesiastical Law Society held at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on 3 March 2012. I am grateful to Professor Mark Hill QC and the Reverend Dr Will Adam for their editorial direction, and to fellow lecturers Professors Silvio Ferrari and Julian Rivers for their exquisite lectures and the learned conversation among the three of us. The material for this article is drawn in part from the following volumes, each of which provide more detailed footnotes: Witte, J and Alexander, F (eds), Christianity and Law: an introduction (Cambridge, 2008)Google Scholar; Witte, J and Alexander, F (eds), Modern Christian Teachings on Law, Politics, and Human Nature (2 vols, New York, 2006)Google Scholar; Witte, J and Nichols, J, Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment (third edition, Boulder, CO, 2010)Google Scholar; Witte, J, God's Joust, God's Justice: law and religion in the Western tradition (Grand Rapids, MI, 2006)Google Scholar.

2 See especially the early anchor text in this field by Berman, H, The Interaction of Law and Religion (Nashville, TN, 1974)Google Scholar, updated in Berman, H, Faith and Order: the reconciliation of law and religion (Grand Rapids, MI, 1993)Google Scholar; Berman, Het al, The Nature and Functions of Law (fifth edition, Westbury, NY, 2006)Google Scholar; Berman, H, Law and Language: effective symbols of community (Cambridge, 2013, forthcoming)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See further Hunter, H (ed), The Integrative Jurisprudence of Harold J. Berman (Boulder, CO, 1996)Google Scholar.

3 The following American law schools have structured law and religion programmes with joint degrees, cross-listed courses, research projects, public lectures and conferences and/or print, digital and social media offerings: Brigham Young, Campbell, Catholic, DePaul, Detroit, Duke, Emory, Faulkner, Fordham, George Washington, Hofstra, Notre Dame, Pepperdine, Regent, Rutgers, Seton Hall, St John's, St Mary's, St Thomas, Touro, Valparaiso, Vanderbilt, Villanova, Wake Forest.

4 See, eg, DeCoste, F and MacPhearson, L, Law, Religion, Theology: a selective annotated bibliography (West Cornwall, CT, 1997)Google Scholar; ‘Reviews on new books in law and religion’, (2001) 16 Journal of Law and Religion 249–1035Google Scholar and (2002) 17 Journal of Law and Religion 97–459; as well as ongoing scholarship reflected and reviewed in such specialised journals as the Ecclesiastical Law Journal, Studia Canonica, the Bulletin of the Medieval Canon Law Society, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung (Kanonisches Abteilung), Ius Commune, the Journal of Law and Religion, the Journal of Church and State, the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion and others.

5 For parallel secularisation movements in Europe, see, in this issue, Ferrari, S, ‘Law and religion in a secular world: a European perspective’, (2012) 14 Ecc LJ 355–370Google Scholar, and Rivers, J, The Law of Organized Religions: between establishment and secularism (Oxford, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Gilmore, G, The Ages of American Law (New Haven, CT, 1977), pp 110–111Google Scholar.

7 Bowen, C, Yankee from Olympus: Justice Holmes and his family (Boston, MA, 1944)Google Scholar.

8 Gilmore, Ages of American Law, pp 48–56, 110 and 147 n 12.

9 Alschuler, A, Life Without Values: the life, work and legacy of Justice Holmes (Chicago, 2000)Google Scholar.

10 Holmes, O Wendell, ‘The path of the law (1897)’, in Holmes, O Wendell, Collected Legal Papers (New York, 1920), p 170Google Scholar.

11 Gilmore, Ages of American Law, pp 41–67.

12 See especially Austin, J, The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (ed Rumble, W, Cambridge, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Langdell, C, A Selection of Cases on the Law of Contracts (Boston, MA, 1879), prefaceGoogle Scholar; Langdell, C, ‘Harvard celebration speeches’, (1887) 3 LQR 123–125Google Scholar.

13 See, eg, Wigmore, J, ‘Nova methodus discendae docendaeque jurisprudentiae’, (1917) 30 Harvard Law Review 812–829CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Holmes, O Wendell, ‘Learning and science’, and ‘Law in science, science in law’, in Holmes, Wendell, Collected Legal Papers, pp 135–141 at 139, 210–243 at 231Google Scholar; Stevens, R, Law School: legal education in America from the 1850s to 1980s (Chapel Hill, NC, 1983)Google Scholar.

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16 Southern Pacific Co. v Jensen, 244 US 205, 222 (1917) (Holmes J dissenting); see also Hoffheimer, M, Justice Holmes and the Natural Law (New York, 1992)Google Scholar.

17 Lochner v New York, 198 US 45, 76 (1905).

18 Holmes, O Wendell, ‘Letter to Sir Frederick Pollock (May 30, 1927)’, in Howe, Mark DeWolfe (ed), Holmes–Pollock Letters: The Correspondence of Mr. Justice Holmes and Sir Frederick Pollock, 1874–1932, vol 2 (Cambridge, MA, 1941), p 200Google Scholar.

19 See eg, Stone, J, The Province and Function of Law: law as logic, justice and social control (London, 1947)Google Scholar; Radbruch, G, Der Geist des englischen Recht (Heidelberg, 1946)Google Scholar.

20 Fisher, W, Horwitz, M and Reed, T (eds), American Legal Realism (New York, 1993)Google Scholar; Rumble, W, American Legal Realism: skepticism, reform and the judicial process (Ithaca, NY, 1968)Google Scholar.

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22 Llewellyn, K, Jurisprudence (Chicago, 1962)Google Scholar; Fuller, L, The Morality of Law (New Haven, CT, 1964)Google Scholar; Hall, J, Studies in Jurisprudence and Criminal Theory (New York, 1958)Google Scholar; Hall, J, Foundations of Jurisprudence (Indianapolis, IN, 1973)Google Scholar; Berman, The Interaction of Law and Religion; Berman, H, Law and Revolution: the formation of the Western legal tradition (Cambridge, MA, 1983)Google Scholar.

23 A Lewis, ‘Sir Edward Coke (1552–1633): his theory of “artificial reason” as a context for modern basic legal theory’, (1968) 84 LQR 330–342.

24 Berman, Law and Revolution, pp 4ff; Hall, J, Comparative Law and Social Theory (Baton Rouge, LA, 1963), pp 78ffGoogle Scholar.

25 See, eg, Posner, R, ‘The present situation in legal scholarship’, (1981) 90 Yale Law Journal 1113–1130CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Clark, R, ‘The interdisciplinary study of legal evolution’, (1981) 90 Yale Law Journal 1238–1274CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Symposium: American legal scholarship: directions and dilemmas’, (1983) 33 Journal of Legal Education 403–458Google Scholar.

26 See Dreisbach, D, Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation (New York, 2002)Google Scholar; see also Hamburger, P, Separation of Church and State (Cambridge, MA, 2002)Google Scholar.

27 See various drafts of this famous document in Dreisbach, Thomas Jefferson, pp 148ff; Ketcham, R, ‘James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and the meaning of “establishment of religion” in eighteenth-century Virginia’ in Gunn, J and Witte, J (eds), No Establishment of Religion: America's original contribution to religious liberty (Oxford, 2012), pp 154–179Google Scholar.

28 Padover, S (ed), The Complete Jefferson (New York, 1943), p 1147Google Scholar.

29 Ibid, pp 946–947.

30 Ibid, pp 518–519, 673–676, 946–947, 957–958. See further Gaustad, E, Sworn on the Altar of God: a religious biography of Thomas Jefferson (Grand Rapids, MI, 1996)Google Scholar.

31 See Martineau, H (trans), The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte (London, 1853)Google Scholar.

32 Letter from Thomas Jefferson to P H Wendover, 13 March 1815, quoted and discussed in Hamburger, Separation of Church and State, pp 152–154.

33 For different accounts, see Dreisbach, Thomas Jefferson; Hamburger, Separation of Church and State; Green, S, The Second Disestablishment: Church and state in nineteenth-century America (New York, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 The Court first used this metaphor in Reynolds v United States, 98 US 146, 164 (1879).

35 Everson v Board of Education, 330 US 1, 15–16 (1947).

36 The main cases are Cantwell v Connecticut, 310 US 296 (1940); Cox v New Hampshire, 312 US 569 (1941); Murdock v Pennsylvania, 319 US 141 (1943); Follet v McCormick, 321 US 574 (1944); Fowler v Rhode Island, 345 US 67 (1953); Poulos v New Hampshire, 345 US 395 (1953); Sherbert v Verner, 374 US 398 (1963).

37 The main case is West Virginia State Board of Education v Barnette, 319 US 624 (1943).

38 The main cases are In re Summers, 325 US 561 (1945); Girouard v United States, 328 US 61 (1946); First Unitarian Church v County of Los Angeles, 357 US 545 (1958).

39 The main case is Kedroff v St Nicholas Cathedral, 344 US 94 (1952).

40 The main cases are McCollum v Board of Education, 333 US 203 (1948); Engel v Vitale, 320 US 471 (1962); Abington School District v Schempp, 374 US 203 (1963); Stone v Graham, 449 US 39 (1980); Wallace v Jaffree, 472 US 38 (1985); Edwards v Aguillard, 482 US 578 (1987).

41 The main cases are Lemon v Kurtzman, 403 US 602 (1971); Sloan v Lemon, 413 US 825 (1973); Meek v Pittinger, 421 US 349 (1975); Wolman v Walter, 433 US 229 (1977); Grand Rapids School District v Ball, 473 US 373 (1985); Aguilar v Felton, 473 US 402 (1985). See below, n 43 for cases overturning several of these precedents.

42 Lemon, 403 US at 602.

43 Mitchell v Helms, 530 US 793, 808 (2001), overturning Meek v Pittenger, 421 US 329 (1975) and Wolman v Walter, 433 US 229 (1977); Agostini v Felton, 521 US 203, 235 (1997), overturning Aguilar v Felton, 473 US 402 (1985).

44 McDaniel v Paty, 435 US 618 (1978).

45 Bowen v Kendrick, 487 US 589 (1988).

46 Widmar v Vincent, 454 US 263 (1981); Board of Education of the Westside Community Schools v Mergens, 496 US 226 (1990).

47 Witters v Washington Department of Services for the Blind, 474 US 481 (1986); Zobrest v Catalina Foothills School District, 509 US 1 (1993).

48 Lamb's Chapel v Center Moriches Union Free School District, 508 US 384 (1993); Good News Club v Milford Central School District, 533 US 98 (2001).

49 Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, 515 US 753 (1995).

50 Rosenberger v University of Virginia, 515 US 819 (1995).

51 Mitchell v Helms, 530 US 793 (2000); Zelman v Simmons-Harris, 122 S Ct 2460 (2002).

52 See eg, Cover, R, ‘The Supreme Court 1982 term – foreword: nomos and narrative', (1983) 97 Harvard Law Review 4–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Winter, S, A Clearing in the Forest: law, life and the mind (Chicago, 2001)Google Scholar.

53 Noonan, J, ‘The tensions and the ideals’, in van der Vyver, J and Witte, J (eds), Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives (The Hague, 1996), p 604Google Scholar. See further Idleman, S, ‘The role of religious values in judicial decision making’, (1993) 68 Indiana Law Journal 433–488Google Scholar.

54 See, eg, Greenawalt, K, Religion and Fairness (2 vols, Princeton, NJ, 2006–2008)Google Scholar; McConnell, M, Garvey, J and Berg, T, Religion and the Constitution (second edition, New York, 2006)Google Scholar; Laycock, D, Religious Liberty (4 vols, Grand Rapids, MI, 2010)Google Scholar; Bassett, W, Religious Organizations and the Law (2 vols with updates, St Paul, MN, 1999)Google Scholar; Serritella, J, Religious Organizations in the United States: a study of identity, liberty, and the law (Durham, NC, 2006)Google Scholar.

55 See a good summary and sampling of the recent literature and instruments in C Durham and Scharffs, B, Law and Religion: international, national, and comparative perspectives (New York, 2010)Google Scholar; van der Ven, J, Human Rights or Religious Rules? (Leiden, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lerner, N, Religion, Secular Beliefs and Human Rights: 25 years after the Human Rights Declaration (Leiden, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stahnke, T and Martin, J (eds), Religion and Human Rights: basic documents (New York, 1998)Google Scholar; Lindholm, T, Durham, C and Tahzib-Lie, B, Facilitating Freedom of Religion or Belief: a deskbook (Leiden, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Taylor, P, Freedom of Religion: UN and European Human Rights law and practice (Cambridge, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 For a recent summary of this literature, with ample bibliography, see Witte, J and Green, M (eds), Religion and Human Rights: an introduction (Oxford, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 See literature analysed in Glendon, M, ‘Is religious freedom becoming a second class right?’, (2012) Emory Law Journal (forthcoming)Google Scholar.

58 See literature distilled in Witte, J, From Sacrament to Contract: marriage, religion and law in the Western tradition (second edition, Louisville, KY, 2011)Google Scholar.

59 See especially the work of the late Don S Browning, director of the Religion, Culture and Family Project at the University of Chicago and author of numerous titles, including Marriage and Modernization (Grand Rapids, MI, 2003); Browning, Det al, From Culture Wars to Common Ground: religion and the American family debate (second edition, Louisville, KY, 2000)Google Scholar. See also, among family law scholars, Brining, M, From Contract to Covenant: beyond the law and economics of the family (Cambridge, MA, 2000)Google Scholar; Brining, M, Family Law and Community: supporting the covenant (Chicago, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60 See a fine recent treatment in Vischer, R, Conscience and the Common Good: reclaiming the space between the individual and the state (Cambridge, 2010)Google Scholar; Laycock, D, Picarello, A and Wilson, R Fretwell (eds), Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty: emerging conflicts (Lanham, MD, 2008)Google Scholar; Greenawalt, K, Private Consciences and Public Reasons (New York, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 See sources and analysis in J Witte, Why Two in One Flesh: the Western case for monogamy over polygamy (Oxford, forthcoming). See also a recent case in the British Columbia Supreme Court, which sets out the main arguments in detail: Re Section 293 of the Criminal Code of Canada 2011 BCSC 1588.

62 See, eg, Nichols, J (ed), Marriage and Divorce in a Multicultural Context: multi-tiered marriage and the boundaries of civil law and religion (Cambridge, 2012)Google Scholar; ‘Symposium: sharia, family and democracy: religious norms and family law in pluralistic democratic states’, (2012) 25 Emory International Law Review 779–1059Google Scholar (special issue); Ahdar, R and Aroney, N (eds), Sharia in the West (Oxford, 2010)Google Scholar.

63 For a good recent example, see Lupu, I and Tuttle, R, The Keys to the Kingdom: ecclesiastical polity and discipline in American protestantism (Grand Rapids, MI, 2013)Google Scholar. See the monumental studies of Hill, M, Ecclesiastical Law (third edition, Oxford, 2007)Google Scholar and Doe, N, The Law of the Church in Wales (Cardiff, 2002)Google Scholar.

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65 This is the title of Huntington, S, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York, 2011)Google Scholar.

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67 See Witte and Alexander (eds), Christianity and Law; Witte, J and Alexander, F S, Christianity and Human Rights: an introduction (Cambridge, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lubin, T, Davis, D and Krishnan, J (eds), Hinduism and Law: an introduction (Cambridge, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hayes, C (ed), Judaism and Law: an introduction (Cambridge, forthcoming)Google Scholar; French, R et al (eds), Buddhism and Law: an introduction (Cambridge, forthcoming)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also, eg, McConnell, M, Cochran, R and Carmella, A (eds), Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought (New Haven, CT, 2001)Google Scholar; Browning, D, Green, M and Witte, J (eds), Sex, Marriage and Family in World Religions (New York, 2006)Google Scholar; Browning, D and Bunge, M (eds), Children and Childhood in World Religions (New Brunswick, NJ, 2009)Google Scholar.

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