Religious Offence and Human Rights - The Implications of Defamation of Religions

Should offence to religions be punishable by law, or does freedom of expression extend even to blasphemy? This book examines this question.

List of contents

Introduction; Part I: 1. The Danish cartoons revisited; 2. Legal responses to religious insult; 3. The current legal framework; 4. Invention of new alternatives? The concept of defamation of religions before and after the cartoons; 5. Defining defamation; Part II: 6. First principles: norms and norm-rationales; 7. Norm-rationales for the regulation of speech; 8. The religious rationale; 9. Religion, its defamation, and international law.

About the author

Lorenz Langer is a lecturer at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and a Senior Research Fellow at its Centre for Research on Direct Democracy. He is also the managing editor of the Swiss Review of European and International Law.

Summary

Projecting religious offence on a global scale has become tantalisingly easy. While Salman Rushdie had to write a voluminous novel to prompt worldwide outrage, his lesser epigones can content themselves with caricatures or video-clips on the internet. But should global outrage also entail global sanctions? Should international law prohibit blasphemy? This book examines these questions.

Product details

• Authors: Lorenz Langer, Lorenz (Universitat Zurich) Langer
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.03.2016
• EAN: 9781107612204
• ISBN: 978-1-107-61220-4
• No. of pages: 490
• Series: Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law; Cambridge Studies in Internati
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education