ABSTRACT
The challenges posed by the interaction of law and religion in our jurisdictions, and in international law, are essential challenges raised by an increased respect for the increasing fact of religious difference within each jurisdiction. Where all those within a jurisdiction are co-religionists, sharing membership of a common religious organisation, the interaction is comparatively simple. Does the religion teach that Sunday should be observed as a day of rest? If so, the State can ban work on that day, and on that day only. Does the religion teach that male children should be circumcised? If so the State can define that physical change as acceptable childcare, and perhaps define a failure to carry it out as child neglect. Does the religion look to sacred texts as divinely inspired? If so, the State can protect this special status by prohibiting words likely to bring it into contempt, or outrage members of the State religion. In practice, of course, even when the State portrayed its members as having a single, shared, religious identity it is unlikely that this was truly the case. From a legal perspective, however, a State can represent this relationship even against factual evidence. Heretics can be seen as deviants, rather than as members of a religious minority within the territory.
