The Mandate of Heaven and the Great Ming Code
Jiang Yonglin
KNN33 .J53 2011
From the Publisher: After overthrowing the Mongol Yuan dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), proclaimed that he had obtained the Mandate of Heaven (Tianming), enabling establishment of a spiritual orientation and social agenda for China. Zhu, emperor during the Ming’s Hongwu reign period, launched a series of social programs to rebuild the empire and define Chinese cultural identity. To promote its reform programs, the Ming imperial court issued a series of legal documents, culminating in The Great Ming Code, which supported China’s legal system until the Ming was overthrown and also served as the basis of the legal code of the following dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911). […] This study challenges the conventional assumption that law in pre-modern China was used merely as an arm of the state to maintain social control and as a secular tool to exercise naked power. Based on a holistic approach, Jiang argues that the Ming ruling elite envi-sioned the cosmos as an integrated unit; they saw law, religion, and political power as intertwined, remarkably different from the “modern” compartmentalized worldview. In serving as a cosmic instru-ment to manifest the Mandate of Heaven, The Great Ming Code represented a powerful religious ef-fort to educate the masses and transform society.
Friends at the Bar: A Quaker View of Law, Conflict Resolution, and Legal Reform
Nancy Black Sagafi-nejad
KF4869.Q83 S24 2011
From the Publisher: George Fox, founder of the Religious Society of Friends, admonished his follow-ers against “going to law.” In this fascinating, wide-ranging book, a Quaker lawyer explores the rela-tionship between Quakers and the American legal system and discusses Friends’ legal ethics. A highly influential group in the United States, both for their spiritual ideals of harmony, equality, and truth-telling, and for their activism on many causes, including abolition and opposition to war, Quakers have had many noteworthy interactions with the law. [The author] sketches the history and beliefs of the early Quakers in England and America, then goes on to look at important twentieth-century constitutional law cases involving Quakers, many involving civil rights issues. Sagafi-nejad’s survey of one-hundred Quaker lawyers shows them to be at odds with the adversarial system and highlights a legal practice that must balance truth-telling and zealous advocacy. The Quaker development of extra-legal dispute resolution to solve debates amongst Friends is discussed, along with a look at the possible future of mediation.
Hinduism and Law: An Introduction
edited by Timothy Lubin, Donald R. Davis Jr., Jayanth K. Krishnan
KNS122 .H564 2010
From the Publisher: Covering the earliest Sanskrit rulebooks through to the codification of ‘Hindu law’ in modern times, this interdisciplinary volume examines the interactions between Hinduism and the law. The authors present the major transformations to India’s legal system in both the colonial and post colonial periods and their relation to recent changes in Hinduism. Thematic studies show how law and Hinduism relate and interact in areas such as ritual, logic, politics, and literature. In doing so, the authors build on previous treatments of Hindu law as a purely text-based tradition, and in the process, provide a fascinating account of an often neglected social and political history.
Encountering Religion in the Workplace: The Legal Rights and Responsibilities of Workers and Employers
Raymond F. Gregory
KF3466.5 .G74 2011
From the Publisher: In a recent survey, 20 percent of the workers interviewed reported that they had either experienced religious prejudice while at work or knew of a coworker who had been subjected to some form of discriminatory conduct. Indeed, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Com-mission, the filing of religious discrimination charges under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which prohibits discrimination in employment based on race, color, national origin, sex, and religion) increased 75 percent between 1997 and 2008. The growing desire on the part of some religious groups to openly express their faith while at work has forced their employers and coworkers to reconsider the appropriateness of certain aspects of devotional conduct. Religion in the workplace does not sit well with all workers, and, from the employer’s perspective, the presence of religious practice during the workday may be distracting and, at times, divisive. A thin line separates religious self-expression—by employees and employers—from unlawful proselytizing. In doing so, the authors build on previous treatments of Hindu law as a purely text-based tradition, and in the process, provide a fascinating account of an often neglected social and political history. practice during the workday may be distracting and, at times, divisive. A thin line separates religious self-expression— by employees and employers— from unlawful proselytizing.
Muslims and Global Justice
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naʻim
KBP2460 .N353 2011
From the Publisher: An-Na’im opens this collection of essays with a chapter on Islamic ambivalence toward political violence, showing how Muslims began grappling with this problem long before the 9/11 attacks. Other essays highlight the need to improve the cultural legitimacy of human rights in the Muslim world. As An-Na’im argues, in order for a commitment to human rights to become truly uni-versal, we must learn to accommodate a range of different reasons for belief in those rights. In addition, the author contends, building an effective human rights framework for global justice requires that we move toward a people-centered approach to rights. Such an approach would value foremost empower-ing local actors as a way of negotiating the paradox of a human rights system that relies on self-regulation by the state. Encompassing over two decades of An-Na’im’s work on these critical issues, Muslims and Global Justice provides a valuable theoretical approach to the challenge of realizing glob-al justice in a world of profound religious and cultural difference.
Politics, Taxes, and the Pulpit: Provocative First Amendment Conflicts
Nina J. Crimm, Laurence H. Winer
KF6449 .C748 2011
From the Publisher: In Politics, Taxes, and the Pulpit, Nina J. Crimm and Laurence H. Winer examine the provocative mix of religion, politics, and taxes involved in the controversy over houses of worship engaging in electoral political speech. The authors analyze the dilemmas associated with federal tax subsidies benefiting nonprofit houses of worship conditioned on their refraining from political cam-paign speech. The Supreme Court’s recent Citizens United decision invalidating federal campaign fi-nance restrictions on corporations’ political campaign speech makes the remaining, analogous restric-tive tax laws constraining many nonprofit entities all the more singular and problematic, particularly for houses of worship. Crimm and Winer explore the multifaceted constitutional tensions arising from this legal structure and implicating all fundamental values embodied in the First Amendment: free speech and free press, the free exercise of religion, and the avoidance of government establishment of religion. . They also examine the history and economics of taxation of houses of worship. The authors conclude that there exists no means of fully resolving the irreconcilable clashes in a constitutionally permissible and politically and socially palatable manner. Nonetheless, Crimm and Winer offer several feasible legislative proposals for reforming tax provisions that likely will generate considerable debate.
ThomChat 