ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the idea that legal systems, in their relation to religion, might be plotted by reference to a pair of ideal types, ideal types that will function to define the range of modern religio-legal regimes from "established" to "dis-established". Formalist and positivist understandings of law have, to be sure, been the subject of criticism within legal studies for some time from a number of different perspectives. Euro-American comparative law has conventionally divided modern law into three categories, civil law, common law, and religious law. The chapter focuses on the level of generality of legal language comparing religion can be correlated to the degree of establishment: that language about religion necessarily becomes more general as it moves away from the historical context of a particular religious community and becomes less established. Legal theorists have concerned themselves with the sources of law, the legitimacy of law, and the distinctive ideas and institutions of law.
