News

Hans-Martien ten Napel will be speaking on the topic of ‘Comparative Constitutional Law and Natural Law.’

The abstract of the paper reads as follows:

During the last decade or so the discipline of comparative constitutional law has experienced phenomenal growth. Handbooks in the field have become truly global in outlook.

With the globalization of comparative constitutional law, the question arises which standards should be applied to evaluate different legal arrangements? Alternatively, the field would alter into an empirical discipline that merely registers how such mechanisms differ around the globe.

In a not so distant past, it would still have made sense to use religion as a source of inspiration to evaluate different constitutional arrangements. Using faith is not an option anymore, however, as most political orders are rooted in religious cultures. Within the West, moreover, constitutionalism is increasingly separated from religion.

In the proposed paper, following the work of Santiago Legarre among others, I will suggest that the idea of natural law is a serious candidate to serve as a normative framework.

For more information on the program of the conference, which takes place from 5-8 March 2018, see: https://www.europeanacademyofreligion.org/program

‘The European Academy of Religion (EuARe) is a research initiative launched under the high patronage of the European Parliament which offers an exchange platform to academies and scientific societies; associations; research centers and institutions; university labs, clusters, and departments; journals, publishers, media and scholars coming from Europe and the surrounding regions.’

On December 6, 2017, Hans-Martien ten Napel will be speaking during a conference on ‘Public Spirit and Public Virtue,’ in Washington, DC.

The conference aims to ‘examine the ways in which the Western world might see a revival of public spirit through public virtue and remain a civilization marked by “order and public tranquility” that only this spirit and virtue can provide.’

Among the other speakers during the conference are:

• John Wilsey, Associate Professor of History at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and currently serving as the William G. Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University;
• Bryan McGraw, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Politics at Wheaton College;
• Wilfred McClay, G.T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty at the University of Oklahoma;
• Gerald McDermott, Ph.D., Anglican Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School.

The conference, which forms part of an International Conference series on ‘Reclaiming the West: Freedom and Responsibility,’ is organized by the Acton Institute. The Acton Institute, named after the English historian Lord John Acton (1834-1902), ‘is a think-tank whose mission is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.’

Co-sponsors of the event are the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture, the Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics, the Institute on Religion and Democracy, and the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

See for more information: https://acton.org/event/2017/06/06/public-spirit-and-public-virtue.

 

The Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, NJ is pleased to announce a new event at the upcoming Annual Meetings of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) in Boston, “Fresh Thinking from CTI”:

“In a pre-meeting session from 4:00pm to 6:00pm on Friday, November 17th (M17-304, Sheraton Boston-Clarendon, third level), recent Members will discuss their ‘Fresh Thinking from CTI’ with invited guest scholars. In the first hour from 4:00pm, ethicist Frederick Simmons will present a short paper on his work in our inquiry on astrobiology, religion, and society. Lisa Sideris (Indiana University) will give a response before discussion. In the second hour from 5:00pm, two scholars in the CTI inquiry on law & religious freedom will discuss new books they wrote while in residence: John Burgess (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary) will discuss his study of the Orthodox Church and the State in contemporary Russia, Holy Rus‘ (Yale University Press) and Hans-Martien ten Napel, Leiden University Law School, will discuss his new book on Constitutionalism, Democracy and Religious Freedom (Routledge). Cathleen Kaveny, Shaun Casey, and Robin Lovin will serve as panelists for the book discussion.”