Jewish Law

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Section on Jewish Law
Columbia 1, North Tower/Lobby Level, San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina

Intersections and Connections with the Legal Academic Study of Jewish Law

The focus of the Section is research and teaching Jewish law in the legal academy. No academic subject, however, sits in splendid isolation. Most obviously, the interest of the Section is distinct from, though it overlaps with, the study of Jewish Law as a subject in history and religious studies. From a different angle, it is closely related to the study of other religiously-grounded legal systems. And it is also related, from yet another side, to the inquiry into how religious and civil norms interact in modern pluralistic societies.

The goal of this year's session is to explore each of these points of intersection. It will feature a series of papers -- by a historian of Jewish law and surrounding cultures in late antiquity, a specialist in Islamic law, and a scholar of legal pluralism and constitutional law -- that should speak profoundly to, without being from, the legal academic study of Jewish law, along with a commentary that draws the connections together and makes them explicit. One goal of the program is to help crystallize some questions about what it exactly means to study Jewish law in a law school. The session should also appeal to anyone interested in comparative law, legal history, or political and constitutional theory.

Business Meeting at Program Conclusion.