The Law of Organized Religions: Between Establishment and Secularism. By Julian Rivers
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2011.00865-1.x |
| Author | Ronan McCrea |
| Date | 01 July 2011 |
| Published date | 01 July 2011 |
REVIEWS
Julian Rivers,The Law of Organized Religions: Between Establishment and
Secularism,Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010,424 pp, hb d50.00.
In seeking to provide a systematic account of the law relating to organised reli-
gions in England, Julian Rivers set himself an extremely demanding task. His
achievement in managing to assemble a coherent and engaging account of a law
that extends over several centuries and involves aspects of avast array of di¡erent
areas of law is outstanding. Rivers manages to draw together an enormous
amount of material and to drawfrom it i nterestingi nsights into the developments
and direction of travel of English law in this increasingly prominent and contro-
versial area.
The book is both descriptive and normative in nature. It argues thatthe develo-
pment of the modern English law on organised religion occupies a position
between the historical legacy of establishment and secularism where the estab-
lished position of the Church of England has acted as a ‘constitutional paradigm’
(344) securing certain forms of connection between religion in general and the
state but in a context in which separation between the state and religion is
assumed. He also speci¢cally rejects secularism, both as a description of the cur-
rent approach of the lawor as a normatively desirable option, onthe basis that he
regards it as unduly limiting of, and biased against, religion.
The bookopens with an admirablyclear and conciseaccount of the mainelem-
ents of the historical development of the relationship between religion and the
state. This is, broadly speaking, a tale of emerging tolerance and the move from
the forcible promotion ofa single religion by thelaw to a situationwhere ‘there is
in law no false religion’ (24).The analysis is enrichedby references and links made
to broader developments such as the growth of individual conscience rights
alongside expansion in the franchise and by an appreciation of the tension
between the history of establishment and the more tolerant approaches towhich
it managedto adapt itself. Rivers notesthat this tension has meant thatin the 20
th
century a gapemerged between ‘the assumed theoretical basis forth e legalplace of
religion and its actual expression in the law’ (32) and that for the relationship
between religion and the law to be based in respect for individual conscience is,
in historical terms, a rather novel approach for English law.
The second chapter focuses on the rights of religious associations in interna-
tional human rights law, most notably Articles 9 (freedom of religion and
conscience) and 11 (freedom of association) of the European Convention on
Human Rights. The rights protected by international human rights law cover
many aspects of the existence and activities of religious organisations such as
rights to internal institutionalautonomy, to establish placesof worship and meet-
ing, to raise funds and the right to uphold religious community life and provide
educational and charitable institutions. In a theme that recurs throughout the
book, Professor Rivers criticises the ‘limiting individualistic tendency’ (35) of
r2011The Authors.The Modern Law Review r2011The Modern Law Review Limited.
Published by BlackwellPublishing, 9600 Garsington Road,Oxford OX4 2DQ,UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
(2011) 74(4) 631^660
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