Hands‐Off or Hands‐On?: Deconstructing the ‘Test‐Case’ of Re G within a Culture of Children's Rights

This note challenges the so‐called ‘test‐case’ status of Re G in so far as it attempts to overturn the principle established in Re T that courts should adopt a neutral position when it comes to weighing the merits of different upbringings and the education provided by parents of minority religions. In determining the future upbringing and education of children who had been brought up in a minority religious community, Re G applies a principle of maximising educational opportunity in order to uphold the mother's proposed educational choice and way of life. This note argues that Re G was wrong to do so, should not be regarded as establishing any new principle and that the only relevant principle, both in determining this case and future cases, ought to rest on the psychological well‐being of the child.     

The history of family and community life through the study of civil registers: Paros in the 20th century

A plenitude of information can be shed on family history and community life by studying civil registers. The case study here is the island of Paros in the period 1894–1997. This period of one century saw the transformation of the insular rural society to one dominated by the third-sector economy and the passage from illiteracy to total literacy. These structural socio-economic changes influenced the timing at which people were procreating, marrying and even dying. The labour-intensive hard work in the fields, as well as religious regulations, had shaped a highly seasonal pattern in conceptions and consequently in births, which was in action well into the first half of the twentieth century, but is attenuating as we approach the present day. Marriage remains a seasonal phenomenon in the examined population (although not to the extent it used to be) because the canon rules of the Orthodox Church are still determining the timing of weddings. Mortality was highly seasonal for infants and children up to the 1940s, revealing that certain diseases (mainly diarrhoea and contagious diseases) were striking at certain periods of the year, while adult mortality presents a different seasonal pattern. Causes of death, which are available from civil registers, were used to explain the seasonal variations of deaths. Civil registers are also used to study the famine which struck the island (along with the rest of Greece) in 1941–42 as a direct effect of the Second World War.     

Letters

正Dear Readers,Forum is a column that provides a space for varying perspectives on contemporary Chinese society.We invite you to submit personal viewpoints on past and current topics(in either English or Chinese).     

COUNTER TERROR

正Efforts to root out religious extremism and terrorism are increasing On May 26,China’s top leadership reiterated that the country will crack down on terrorist activities and ensure that the lasting social stabil-     

Defending broad neutrality

ABSTRACT

This paper interrogates Cécile Laborde’s account of the proper role of religion in the liberal state. It begins by examining Laborde’s claims that prevailing liberals are not committed to broad neutrality about the good, but rather only restricted neutrality about the good—and that they are right to do so. It argues against Laborde on both exegetical and substantive grounds. It then turns to Laborde’s minimalist conception of secularism, according to which the state must be justifiable, inclusive, and limited, and it argues that it is not sufficiently demanding. Finally, it argues that the classical liberal presumption of skepticism toward religious establishment is warranted.     

Religious difference,nationhood and citizenship in Turkey: public reactions to an interreligious marriage in 1962

ABSTRACT

This article explores the relationship between religious difference, nationhood and secular citizenship in Turkey. Turkey is the only country in the Middle East which applies a non-religious and unified law to matters related to the family. The legislation of a secular civil law in 1926 has made interreligious marriages legally possible, removing institutional barriers to religious mixing in the private and intimate sphere of family. At the same time, religious difference remained central to the definition of who is included in, and excluded from, the nation. Against the backdrop of these seemingly competing understandings of religious difference, this article explores the arguments that ordinary citizens made in favor of or opposed to the second marriage in 1962 of Ülkü Adatape, the spiritual daughter of Atatürk, to Yeshua Bensusen, a Jewish citizen of Turkey. Drawing on the notes and proceedings of the Lausanne Peace Conference in 1922/23, parliamentary depositories and newspaper reviews, it demonstrates that a paradox stemming from an ethnoreligious formation of Turkish nationhood, which has denied non-Muslim citizens recognition as full members of the nation, and the secular understanding of the private realm, which has in principle made religious difference inconsequential to the governance of family, simultaneously produced resistance to and justification for interreligious marriages. If the first decades of the republic laid the foundations of this paradox, the period between the transition into electoral democracy in 1946 and the military coup in 1960 intensified it making the link between ethnicity and religion stronger.     

和而不同：儒家与基督宗教对话的可能性

儒家与基督宗教分别以特异性的“忠孝”与“爱神”作为本根至上的终极正当原则,结果导致它们不仅在理论和现实中陷入了深度悖论,而且彼此间也形成了无法调和的张力冲突,难以展开建设性的对话。只有运用它们共同包含的“普世爱人”观念,置换它们各自奉行的特异性至上本根,以尊重人权的“不可坑人害人、应当爱人助人”原则为基础,儒家与基督宗教才能通过求大同、存小异的途径,真正实现“和而不同”。     

论侵害宗教财产目的性使用之法律救济——以寺院为主要景点设立风景名胜区牟利的行为为视角

通过以知名寺院为主要景点,隔绝或阻断通往知名寺院的道路,设立风景名胜区,以谋取经济利益的行为,本质上属于侵权行为,既侵害了僧众作为相邻关系主体所享有的相邻权,也侵害了信众和游客对寺院所提供的自由使用宗教财产的合法利益。对此种利益应当纳入《侵权责任法》上＂合法的民事权益＂的概念给予救济。风景名胜区应当无条件地为包括僧众、信众和游客在内的整个寺院宗教财产使用者群体,提供无偿地自由地接近和进出寺院的通行便利,以此保障该群体所享有的宗教性物质利益（僧众）、宗教性精神利益（僧众、信众）和一般性精神利益（游客）。     

《大札撒》中宗教问题探析

法律维护的是当时的社会秩序,宗教坚持的是未世的内心信仰。法律与宗教的关系有时表现为和谐共治,有时表现为消耗对抗。如何处理二者的关系,是每个时期都必须慎重对待的重大问题。成吉思汗在统一蒙古的过程中,很好地利用了本土宗教,结束了蒙古各部的战乱;在对外扩张中,制定了符合当时现状的宗教政策,并将其以法律的形式予以确定,使法律与宗教的关系在统一和征服的战争中出现了良性互动的奇迹。     

The expression of cultural and religious practice： A constitutional test

Various conventions and national constitutions are differently worded and the interpretation of national constitutions, in particular, reflects different approaches to the concepts of equality and non-discrimination. Different approaches adopted in the different national jurisdictions arise not only from different textual provisions and from different historical circumstances, but also from different jurisprudential and philosophical understanding of equality. The jurisprudence of courts makes clear that the proper reach of the equality right must be determined by reference to the society＇s history and the underlying values of the Constitution. It has been observed that a major constitutional object is the creation of a non-racial and non-sexist egalitarian society underpinned by human dignity, the rule of law, a democratic ethos and human rights. From there emerges a concept of equality that goes beyond mere formal equality and mere non-discrimination which requires identical treatment, whatever the starting point or impact. The question is, how does the state, in limiting religious freedom, conform to the standards of an open and democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom？ The hope is that the conclusion of this paper will then be able to be extended to more controversial cases, in particular, involving limits on the right to freedom of expression, culture and belief.