Book review: Law and Religion in the 21st Century: Relations Between States and Religious Communities

Date01 September 2013
DOI10.1177/0964663913489924b
Published date01 September 2013
Subject MatterBook Reviews
SLS489924 421..438 Book Reviews
425
legitimacy in a way that accounts for popular legitimacy (i.e. is the court viewed as legit-
imate by the people over whom it exercises jurisdiction?).
The book is timely, as Yusuf makes a valuable contribution to what is fast – becoming
the centre of attention in transitional justice, namely how to link accountability initiatives
to meaningful institutional reform in order to establish the rule of law in states exiting vio-
lent conflict or repressive rule. Moreover, interest in judges as actors in transitional justice
is now well established. In particular, the Chilean case has motivated extensive analysis
of the judiciary and judicial ‘change of heart’ (Huneeus, 2010; see also Collins, 2010;
Hilbink, 2007; Requa, in press) as a catalyst of accountability for past wrongs. Yusuf does
not, perhaps regrettably, locate his work within this broader conversation about judges as
agents of transitional justice. Nevertheless, this book is a useful addition to the conversa-
tion, in particular, in terms of the consideration of how a truth commission might enhance
judicial accountability and advance judicial reform in a more structural way.
In a period, as identified by Yusuf, of the global judicialisation of politics, this book is
significant in elaborating this phenomenon in the context of transitional societies, and the
necessary prescriptions for transitional justice to account for the judicialisation of politics.
CATHERINE O’ROURKE
University of Ulster, UK
References
Campbell C and Turner C (2008) Utopia and the doubters: Truth, transition and the law. Legal
Studies 28(3): 374–395.
Collins C (2010) Post-transitional Justice: Human Rights Trials in Chile and El Salvador. Univer-
sity Park, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Dyzenhaus D (1999) Legality and Legitimacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hilbink L (2007) Judges beyond Politics in Democracy and Dictatorship: Lessons from Chile.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Huneeus A (2010) Judging from a guilty conscience: The Chilean judiciary’s human rights turn.
Law and Social Inquiry 35(1): 99–135.
Requa M (in press) The Judiciary and the Politics of Transition: Saviours, Scoundrels, Scapegoat.
London: Routledge.
Teitel R (2000) Transitional Justice. New York: Oxford University Press.
SILVIO FERRARI AND RINALDO CRISTOFORI (eds), Law and Religion in the 21st Century: Rela-
tions Between States and Religious Communities. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2010, pp. 406,
ISBN 9781409411437, £65 (hbk).
For those with an interest in the relationship between state legal...

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