Religion, Race, Rights: Landmarks in the History of Modern Anglo-American Law

by Eve Darian-Smith

Overview

The book highlights the interconnections between three framing concepts in the development of modern western law: religion, race, and rights. The author challenges the assumption that law is an objective, rational and secular enterprise by showing that the rule of law is historically grounded and linked to the particularities of Christian morality, the forces of capitalism dependent upon exploitation of minorities, and specific conceptions of individualism that surfaced with the Reformation in the sixteenth century and rapidly developed in the Enlightenment in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Drawing upon landmark legal decisions and historical events, the book emphasises that justice is not blind because our concept of justice changes over time and is linked to economic power, social values, and moral sensibilities that are neither universal nor apolitical. Highlighting the historical interconnections between religion, race and rights aids our understanding of contemporary socio-legal issues. In the twenty-first century, the economic might of the USA and the west often leads to a myopic vision of law and a belief in its universal application. This ignores the cultural specificity of western legal concepts, and prevents us from appreciating that, analogous to previous colonial periods, in a global political economy Anglo-American law is not always transportable, transferable, or translatable across political landscapes and religious communities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781841137292
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/20/2010
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

Eve Darian-Smith is Professor of Global & International Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara, USA, and the author of Bridging Divides: The Channel Tunnel and English Legal Identity in the New Europe (Winner of the Law and Society Association Herbert Jacob Book Prize).

Table of Contents

List of Figures ix

Acknowledgements xi

Preface xiii

Introduction: Connecting Religion, Race and Rights 1

I Moving toward Separation of Church and State 19

Chapter 1 Martin Luther and the Challenge to the Catholic Church (1517) 21

Religion: Protest and Reform 22

Race: The Infidel Turk 36

Rights: Demanding Secular Law 42

Conclusion 49

Chapter 2 Executing the King: The Trial of Charles I (1649) 52

Religion: Protestant and Catholic Violence 54

Race: Religious Intolerance and Legalizing Racism 65

Rights: Defining the Rights of King, Parliament and Subject 74

Conclusion 84

Chapter 3 Revolution and Thomas Paine's Rights of Man (1791) 88

Religion: The Age of Reason and the Challenge of Science 93

Race: Questioning Slavery and Discrimination 101

Rights: Law's Coming of Age in Rights of Man 106

Conclusion 112

II Capitalism, Colonialism and Nationalism 115

Chapter 4 Sugar, Slaves, Rebellion, Murder (1865) 117

Religion: The 'Divine Institution' of Slavery 124

Race: Scientific Racism 133

Rights: Empire's Right to Massacre 138

Conclusion 146

Chapter 5 Demanding the Eight-Hour Workday (1886) 148

Religion: Law as Faith 153

Race: Racializing Labor 161

Rights: Workers versus Laissez-Faire Capitalism 169

Conclusion 177

Chapter 6 Civilizing Native Americans-The Dawes Act (1887) 180

Religion: Missionaries and Heathens 189

Race: Determining the Race Within 196

Rights: Limiting Native Sovereignty 201

Conclusion 207

III Religion, Race and Rights in a Global Era 209

Chapter 7 Nuremberg's Legacy (1945-49) 211

Religion: Confronting Religious Pluralism 218

Race: Rethinking Race 230

Rights: Implementing Human Rights 237

Conclusion 245

Chapter 8 Democracy, Neoliberalism, and the New Crusades 248

Religion: Exploiting God 255

Race: 'Saving Brown Women' 265

Rights: The Challenges of Neoliberalism 276

Conclusion 282

Conclusion: The Resurgence of Faith 285

Bibliography 293

Index 319

Editorial Reviews

"It is a book worth reading for anyone whose academic work even remotely touches in the issues of religion, race, and rights. And it would be an invaluable reference for any others interested in the last five hundred years of Anglo-American law." --Law and Politics Book Review

From the Publisher