Reforming England's blasphemy law to protect the individual

Using a framework of legal analysis proposed by Robert Post, this article examines the novel possibility of a reform in England's current criminal law of blasphemy. As previous attempts to include faiths other than Christianity faltered politically and theoretically, the article proposes a refo...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. VerfasserIn: Brown, Kevin Smullin (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch/Druck Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
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Veröffentlicht: Routledge 2003
In: Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
Jahr: 2003, Band: 14, Heft: 2, Seiten: 189-203
weitere Schlagwörter:B Religionsfreiheit
B Menschenrechte
B England/Great Britain
B Laws
B Gesetze
B Human Rights
B England/Großbritannien
B Religious Freedom
B human rights violations
B Menschenrechtsverletzungen
Online Zugang: Volltext (doi)
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Using a framework of legal analysis proposed by Robert Post, this article examines the novel possibility of a reform in England's current criminal law of blasphemy. As previous attempts to include faiths other than Christianity faltered politically and theoretically, the article proposes a reform of the law to protect individual citizens and not religious groups. Different from incitement to racial or religious hatred legislation, this new offense would rest on what Joel Feinberg calls 'vicarious harm', the harm done directly to a person by deliberately wounding her sense of the sacred. The essay takes as given the propositions that equality before the law is desirable, a clear and ordered criminal offense is better than a vague criminal offense, and, as given specifically by the circumstances in England, a reverence for the transcendent sacred is privileged above other forms of reverence.
ISSN:0959-6410
Enthält:In: Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/0959641032000057270