This book is devoted to the study
of the interplay
between religious rules and State law. It explores
how State recognition of religious rules can affect the degree of legal
diversity that is available to citizens and why such recognition sometime
results in more individual and collective freedom and sometime in a threat to
equality of citizens before the law. The first part of the book
contains a few contributions that place this discussion within the wider debate
on legal pluralism. While State
law and religious rules are two normative systems among many others, the
specific characteristics of the latter are at the heart of tensions that emerge
with increasing frequency in many countries. The
second part is devoted to the analysis of about twenty national cases that
provide an overview of the different tools and strategies that are employed to
manage the relationship between State law and religious rules all over the
world.