ABSTRACT
Religion has had a fundamental impact on the development of the Western legal tradition and on the legal profession in the Western world. As the execution of St Thomas More in 1535 evidenced, there have been periods of stress and conflict between the religious convictions of some lawyers and the laws of the state. As religious belief has declined and become more variegated, the relationship between the laws of state and the religious beliefs of lawyers is experiencing a new era of friction. Witness the scrutiny of the religious beliefs of recent appointments to the US Supreme Court and the Canadian Supreme Court’s rejection of Trinity Western University’s appeal from the denial of its accreditation. This chapter argues that the legal profession must be open to, and supportive of, membership by lawyers from differing religious backgrounds to maintain public confidence and be representative.
