Sociology of Law, Human Rights, and Religious Freedom

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary discussion about two overlapping processes of the implementation of religious freedom in contemporary societies. The first process can be described as the increasing legal regulation of religion by the state (Cumper and Lewis 2019) and characterized by the expansion and differentiation of laws on religious freedom. The umbrella socio-legal concept of “juridification” (Blichner and Molander 2008) was applied to the analysis of religious freedom regulations and laws, emphasizing the importance of their legal implementation.

The second process refers to the concomitant growing need in cultivating respect towards other’s freedom in matters of religion and non-religion at the level of groups and individual relations in pluralistic societies (Grim and Finke 2011; Berger 2014; Giordan and Pace 2014; Beaman 2017; Modood 2019). It also indicates multiple centers of norm-making related to religious freedom, questioning the role of dominant and minority religions and public institutions within them. Moreover, it highlights the importance of human rights culture, legal conscience, and citizens’ awareness of rights and duties guaranteed and required in broader society.

We invite contributors to this Special Issue to consider the dynamics between these two processes, specifying:

• The relationship between the legal implementation of religious freedom as an international human right principle and the process of establishing a stronger human rights culture in society at the level of social institutions and groups.
• The mechanisms of social implementation of religious freedom, i.e., the process of its transformation as an international human rights principle into the norms and values of organizations (such as schools, hospitals, or international business organizations), religious communities, and everyday communication of citizens.

We invite scholars to contribute original research on religious freedom by emphasizing the importance of cross-national and cross-cultural approaches in this research field.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words, summarizing their intended contribution. Please send your submissions to the guest editor (olga.breskaya@unipd.it) or to the Religions editorial office (religions@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editor to ensure they properly fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

References:

Beaman, Lori G. 2017. Deep Equality in an Era of Religious Diversity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Berger, Peter L. 2014. The Many Altars of Modernity: Toward a Paradigm for Religion in a Pluralist Age. Boston and Berlin: De Gruyter.

Blichner, Lars Chr., and Anders Molander. 2008. “Mapping Juridification.” European Law Journal 14, no. 1: 36–54.

Cumper, Peter, and Tom Lewis. 2019. “Human Rights and Religious Litigation – Faith in the Law?” Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 8: 121–50.

Giordan, Giuseppe, and Enzo Pace, eds. 2014. Religious Pluralism. Framing Religious Diversity in Contemporary World. Springer: New York.

Grim, Brian and Roger Finke. 2011. The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Violence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Modood, Tariq. 2019. Essays on Secularism and Multiculturalism. London: Rowman & Littlefield International.

Dr. Olga Breskaya
Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Giordan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.