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





_______________________________________________
To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see 
http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw

Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private.  
Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can 
read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the 
messages to others.

Reply via email to