{"title":"A Systems Theory Re-Construction of Law and Religion","authors":"Russell Sandberg","doi":"10.1093/ojlr/rwz028","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n Law and Religion has rapidly developed as an academic sub-discipline in English and Welsh Law Schools in the 21st century amidst a significant amount of legislation, litigation, and public debate about religion. However, there are signs that this sub-discipline is becoming inward looking and stagnating. This article takes a step back and uses Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory to explore how Law and Religion has developed as a sub-discipline. Bringing together Luhmann’s work on law and his work on religion, a systems theory of Law and Religion is developed for the first time. Deriving from but refining and developing social systems theory, the article argues that Law and Religion requires a radical rethink if it is to flourish as an area of study.","PeriodicalId":44058,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Journal of Law and Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/ojlr/rwz028","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Oxford Journal of Law and Religion","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ojlr/rwz028","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"LAW","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Law and Religion has rapidly developed as an academic sub-discipline in English and Welsh Law Schools in the 21st century amidst a significant amount of legislation, litigation, and public debate about religion. However, there are signs that this sub-discipline is becoming inward looking and stagnating. This article takes a step back and uses Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory to explore how Law and Religion has developed as a sub-discipline. Bringing together Luhmann’s work on law and his work on religion, a systems theory of Law and Religion is developed for the first time. Deriving from but refining and developing social systems theory, the article argues that Law and Religion requires a radical rethink if it is to flourish as an area of study.
期刊介绍:
Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of religion in public life and a concomitant array of legal responses. This has led in turn to the proliferation of research and writing on the interaction of law and religion cutting across many disciplines. The Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (OJLR) will have a range of articles drawn from various sectors of the law and religion field, including: social, legal and political issues involving the relationship between law and religion in society; comparative law perspectives on the relationship between religion and state institutions; developments regarding human and constitutional rights to freedom of religion or belief; considerations of the relationship between religious and secular legal systems; and other salient areas where law and religion interact (e.g., theology, legal and political theory, legal history, philosophy, etc.). The OJLR reflects the widening scope of study concerning law and religion not only by publishing leading pieces of legal scholarship but also by complementing them with the work of historians, theologians and social scientists that is germane to a better understanding of the issues of central concern. We aim to redefine the interdependence of law, humanities, and social sciences within the widening parameters of the study of law and religion, whilst seeking to make the distinctive area of law and religion more comprehensible from both a legal and a religious perspective. We plan to capture systematically and consistently the complex dynamics of law and religion from different legal as well as religious research perspectives worldwide. The OJLR seeks leading contributions from various subdomains in the field and plans to become a world-leading journal that will help shape, build and strengthen the field as a whole.