The McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism is proud to
invite you to the McGill - Minerva - Tel Aviv University conference:
"Religious Revival in a post-Multicultural Age"
The conference will be hosted at McGill University Faculty of Law,
3644 Peel Street,
Montreal<http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=McGill%20University%20Faculty%20of%20Law,%203644%20Peel%20Street,Montreal&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=fr&tab=wl>,
in room 312
on
- Friday, January 28th 2011, from 4:00pm to 7:00pm
- Saturday, January 29th 2011, from 9:00am to 5:00pm
The conference has received accreditation for a total of 8 hours from
the Québec Bar Association. Registration fee is 75$, payable by cheque
or cash upon arrival. For accreditation and registration inquiries,
please e-mail to the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.
Refreshments and coffee will be served during the breaks, as well as a
lunch on Saturday. As the number of available seats is limited, we
strongly encourage you to RSVP quickly to
chrlp.law@mcgill.ca<mailto:chrlp.law@mcgill.ca>.
Some limited seats are available for students free of charge,
attributed on a first come, first served basis. RSVP to
chrlp.law@mcgill.ca<mailto:chrlp.law@mcgill.ca>.
We look forward to seeing you at what promises to be an extraordinary event.
CHRLP
Conference co-chairs: Professor Shai Law (Tel Aviv) and Professor René
Provost (McGill)
Topic: "Religious Revival in a post-Multicultural Age":
For several decades, "culture" played a central role in challenging
the liberal tradition and its legal and philosophical foundations, a
debate particularly acute in the field of human rights. "Religion",
which also had posed a challenge to liberal thought for centuries,
seemed to have almost faded away beyond constitutional debates
regarding the limits of free exercise. More recently, however,
religion seems to have reemerged as the new central challenge facing
Western liberal societies. The conference will address the
significance of the growing presence of "religion" in contemporary law
and politics, and discuss the following questions:
* Has "religion" indeed taken the place of "culture" as a centre
of political tension and social integration? How have liberal
democracies faced the rise of religion in the age of multiculturalism?
* Do religious and ethnic groups pose similar challenges to
modern liberal societies, or are these challenges significantly
different? Has the traditional struggle for "religious freedom" been
transformed to a struggle for political recognition in line with the
more contemporary "politics of identity"? Are contemporary discussions
of a "post-secular" society similar to those of "mutli-cultural"
societies?
* Are notions of religious belief being merged with cultural
practices to enlarge the constitutionally protected autonomy of
minorities? Can this destabilize societies viewing themselves as
multicultural by relying on a common foundation presented as secular?
* Can the notion of "citizenship" escape any religious overtone,
given the significance of religious beliefs in the identities of so
many groups constituting modern societies?
* Is "secularization" itself, as some have argued, "culturally
biased"? Is "culture" in the final analysis nothing more than a
"secularized" version of (Christian?) "religion"?
* More generally, what is the philosophical and legal sense of
"religion" and "culture"? Have these concepts and the phenomena they
represent undergone a historical change? Are we in need of new
concepts, doctrines and theories to comprehend and resolve the new
challenges of religious revival in the post-multicultural age?
Religious Revival in a post-Multicultural Age
January 28-29, 2011 - McGill University
Programme
Friday 28 January 2011
16h00 - 16h15: Welcome - Professor René Provost
- Dean Daniel Jutras
Session 1 - Religion, Culture, and Other Incommensurables
Chair: Professor René Provost (McGill University)
Panelists: Professor Shai Lavi (Tel Aviv University)
Were German-Jews a "Culture" or a "Religion" and why would it
matter for
Muslims Today?
Professor Alison Renteln (University of
Southern California)
The Human Right to a Name and the Implications for Parental Naming of
Children.
Professor Victor Muniz-Fraticelli (McGill University)
Religion as practical authority
Professor Menachem Mautner (Tel Aviv university):
A Dialogue between a Liberal and an Ultra-Orthodox on the Exclusion of
Women from Torah Study
Discussant: Professor Laura Underkuffler (University of Michigan)
16h15 - 17h45: Presentations by panellists
17h45 - 18h00: Coffee Break
18h00 - 19h00: Discussion
Saturday 29 January 2011
Session 2 - Informal Norms in Plural States
Chair: Professor Shai Lavi (Tel Aviv University)
Panelists: Professor Shauna Van Praagh (McGill University):
"Inside Out/ Outside In": Co-Existence and Cross-Pollination
of Religion and State"
Professor Michael Karayanni (Hebrew University):
A Robust Form of the Multicultural Predicament and the need for Feeble
Measures for its Elevation
Professor Yishai Blank (Tel Aviv University):
Religion and Culture in Israel: The Local Battle over Public Spaces
Professor Ino Augsburg (Ludwig-Maximilians Universität):
Religious Freedom as "Reflexive Law"
Discussant: Professor Vrinda Narain (McGill University)
9h00 - 10h30: Presentations by panellists
10h30 - 10h45: Coffee Break
10h45 - 12h00: Discussion
Lunch in the Atrium for all conference attendees: 12h00 - 13h30
Session 3 - Community Autonomy and State Control
Chair: Professor Colleen Sheppard (McGill University)
Panelists: Professor Christopher McCrudden (University
of Oxford):
Multiculturalism, Freedom of Religion, and Equality in
Britain
Professor Susanne Last Stone (Cardozo Law School):
Political Order, Public Space, and Transcendance: Competing Visions
Professor Angela Campbell (McGill University):
Religious Claims as Public Reason? Polygamy as a Case Study
Professor Daphna Barak-Erez (Tel Aviv University):
Who is a Jew and the Law - Between London and Jerusalem
Discussant: Professor Anver Emon (University of Toronto)
13h30 - 15h00: Presentations by panellists
15h00 - 15h30: Coffee Break
15h30 - 16h45: Discussion
16h45 - 17h00: Closing Word - Professor Shai Lavi (Tel Aviv
university)
