THEOLOGY AND INTERNATIONAL LAW
12/8/2009
The CTI Working Group on Theology and International Law focuses on connections between theology and law in history and in the contemporary world. Through individual research and interdisciplinary discussions between theologians and international lawyers, the Working Group encourages religious understanding of the rule of law as the basis for an emerging global society.
Global issues link religion and international law at many points. Humanitarian crises, pandemic diseases, climate change, and violations of human rights all engage religious communities across national boundaries, and every practical attempt to address these problems raises questions of international law. Public concern with the issues has become increasingly urgent, yet both religion and international law face a crisis of legitimacy in relation to global politics. Reputable scholars have argued that international law lacks authority as law and lacks moral force because it has no democratic pedigree. Religion, too, has problems of authority and legitimacy in the global “public square.” In a time when religion often seems relevant primarily as an inspiration for uncontrolled violence that threatens the fragile international order, many legal theorists, even those with sincere personal religious convictions, believe that religious ideas and identities should be excluded from any formative role in international deliberations and judgments. Nevertheless, humanity is unlikely to construct a durable international order without some connection to the religious traditions that guide most of the world’s moral commitments. Thus, one important task of theological scholarship at the present time is to identify sources of moral authority that both support the order of international law and connect to significant religious traditions.
The Working Group has made a start on these inquiries in a series of meetings that explored the relations between natural law and international law, theological understandings of the meaning and limits of sovereignty, and connections between the imago dei and the ideas of human dignity and human rights. Each of these topics is deeply rooted in the history of Christian thought and of international law. Together, they provide the starting point for a discourse about political order which is older than the modern state and rests on a moral authority distinct from the authority of positive international law.
These ideas will have little practical relevance, however, unless they can be linked to ideas in other religious traditions and to the concerns of humanitarians and political leaders who may not be inclined to begin with theological or metaphysical foundations. For the future, the Working Group intends to go both deeper into the Christian tradition and wider into interreligious dialogue and the practical conditions for extending the authority of international law in European and American politics. Efforts in these directions include CTI’s cooperation with the International Bar Association and the Salzburg Global Seminar, steps toward the formation of a group of Muslim scholars to join in a parallel dialogue on Islam and international law, and research for a book on International Law and Christian Ethics by Robin Lovin, the Working Group’s co-chair, who will be a resident scholar at CTI during Spring 2010. Other members of the Working Group have individual studies in various stages of development, and consultations on these projects are expected to be a central feature of the Working Group’s activity in the future.
For video interviews with Robin Lovin, Jeremy Waldron and Mary Ellen O'Connell, go to MULTIMEDIA on our website.
Members of the Working Group
Roger Alford (Pepperdine; Law)
Nick Grief (Bournemouth, U.K.; Law)
David Gushee (Mercer; Christian Ethics)
David Hollenbach (Boston College; Theology)
Robin Lovin (Southern Methodist University; Theology), co-chair
Mary Ellen O’Connell (Notre Dame; Law)
Amanda Perreau-Saussine (Cambridge, U.K.; Law)
Esther Reed (Exeter, U.K.; Theology)
Will Storrar (Center for Theological Inquiry, Princeton), convenor)
Christiane Tietz (Mainz, Germany; Theology)
Jeremy Waldron (NYU, Law and Philosophy), co-chair
The working group is grateful to other scholars who have participated in our discussions and provided assistance in developing the agenda. These scholars have included: Abdullah Ahmed An-Na’im, Marcus Bockmuehl, Anthony Carty, Anver Emon, William George, Karen Greenberg, George Hunsinger, Vaughan Lowe, Oliver O’Donovan, Joan Lockwood O’Donovan, Glenn Stassen, and Kim Scheppele.