If you don't separate religious from civil, the question becomes nonsensical. Contracts are to enforced under the sharia -- as a matter of religious obligation. Separation of religion and state systems is not the only viable system. But it may well be the best.
If a contract in Saudi Arabia is to be enforced in the U.S. it must be enforced in civil courts -- no religious ones around to do the work. This is a commercial contract -- not a religious one -- it is just a question of what law to apply to it. Steve On Jan 3, 2011, at 9:35 PM, hamilto...@aol.com wrote: > The more important question is whether the might of the state should shore up > a religious contract. Don't religious organizations have sufficient methods > to enforce religious law without having to ask civil institutions to > intervene? Moreover, where is the state interest in seeing disputes resolved > through theological beliefs? Let us take the perspective of the society for a > moment and not just the subjective desires of the contracting religious > parties. > The core issue here is twofold: why is the religious dispute in a civil court > and what benefit is the religion seeking by resorting to civil enforcement? > Those questions need to be frankly addressed. -- Prof. Steven D. Jamar vox: 202-806-8017 Associate Director, Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice http://iipsj.org Howard University School of Law fax: 202-806-8567 http://iipsj.com/SDJ/ "For all men of good will May 17, 1954, came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of enforced segregation. . . . It served to transform the fatigue of despair into the buoyancy of hope." Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1960 on Brown v. Board of Education
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