Studies in Law, Politics, and Society

Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College, USA. He is also a Five College Fortieth Anniversary Professor. He has written, co-written, or edited more than fifty books in the fields of law and political science.

• Section I: Law and ReligionChapter 1. For God's Sake, Don't Segregate! Two Kinds of Religious Schools and Equality in Education; Tammy Harel Ben ShaharChapter 2. "Honorable Religious Premises" and Other Affronts: Disputing Free Exercise in the Era of Trump; Jenna ReinboldChapter 3. An Uneasy Encounter: Male circumcision, Jewish difference, and German law; Mareike RiedelChapter 4. Religious Accommodation in the Secular State: The Sharia Debates in Australia;Canada, and the United Kingdom; Amira AftabSection II: Law and Social Change: Old Questions, New AnswersChapter 5. How Legal Intermediaries Facilitate or Inhibit Social Change; Shauhin Talesh and Jérôme PélisseChapter 6. The Politics of Litigation; Jeb BarnesChapter 7. But is it a harm and who is responsible? Refugees and asylum seeker detention: law, courts and social change; Jennifer Balint

This volume brings together seven essays contributed by political science, law, and religion scholars from Europe, Australia, Israel, and the US, who consider law in the context of religion and social change. In the first section, they examine the interaction between law and religion in terms of religious schools and equality in education in various countries; the Obergefell v. Hodges decision and religious free exercise in the era of Donald Trump; male circumcision, Jewish difference, and German law; and the Sharia debates, religious accommodation, and informal institutional norms in Australia, Canada, and the UK. The second section focuses on how the law enhances and inhibits projects of social change, with discussion of the role of legal intermediaries, the political risks of litigation in American policymaking, and the use of law and legal institutions by the social movement seeking to end Australia's policy of mandatory detention for refugees and asylum seekers.