Can God and Caesar Coexist? Balancing Religious Freedom and International Law (review)

Religion has been responsible for some of humanity's most civilizing influences. Great periods of art, culture, intellectual revival, and social welfare have come and gone and come again in splendid wakes of periodic religion-inspired-and-sponsored beneficence. Institutions of higher learning, such as the one where I presently teach, have become prominent and productive byproducts of religious impulses. Yet religion can also justly be associated with some of the most inhuman periods in world history. Religious intolerance has been responsible for both national and international conflict. Religious impulses have spawned wars and purges, precipitating countless deaths and inordinate periods of extended human suffering. In the post–9/11 environment of today's world, we have become particularly wary of extremist religious impulses that have seemingly led to a series of unrelenting worldwide terrorist acts. Not surprisingly, the states that have been the recipients of these violent actions have taken multiple actions and passed reactionary laws to help prevent and repress such activities. There is an almost preternatural bipolarity in religion that seems inevitably lodged in its propensity to be used by human beings for both good and evil. It is this dimension that engages physical, emotional, and spiritual energies with an often high degree of volatility.

Given this particular set of circumstances, Robert F. Drinan, S.J., has struck upon a rather compellingly useful and vexingly complex topic—the underdeveloped question of how to balance religious freedom within the context of international law. As a Jesuit priest and professor of law at Georgetown University, a past dean of the law school at Boston University, and a five-term member of Congress from Massachusetts, Drinan seems uniquely equipped to tackle the thorny legal, political, and religious dimensions central to his thesis. Drinan argues that we must become more intentional about guaranteeing religious freedom throughout the world. While there is no signed covenant on religious freedom under the auspices of the United Nations, Drinan looks to the day when this can be accomplished and argues persuasively that this would be a good idea. In order to support his thesis, he tactfully and evenhandedly examines a host of presumed and actual impediments.

The book is laid out in 13 chapters. In chapter 1, Drinan points out that in the post–World War II world, international covenants have consistently mentioned religious freedom as a constitutive human right, but notes that the "uncertainty around the world concerning the extent to which governments should guarantee religious freedom is one of the major reasons why the United Nations has not pursued a covenant or a legally binding instrument on freedom of religion" (3). The same "uncertainty" has precluded an international monitoring system for compliance. Thus, at present, political and economic rights enjoy a more privileged place in the pantheon of international rights. But the world's governments remain skittish about the establishment of a world tribunal to adjudicate religious rights. As Drinan notes, "The feeling is somehow pervasive that government organizations—or even a transnational legal body—should not get involved in the religious practices of 84 percent of the human race" (6).

In chapter 2, Drinan notes key contemporary sources and dimensions of freedom of religion and conscience. He deftly describes problems associated with nation-states who have established one religion as the official religion of the country. Chief among them is the question of the rights of the participants in minority religions and all the complexities that set of questions entails. For example, states where religion is established will be hard pressed to listen to, much less obey, dictates from an external transnational body or tribunal trying to ensure minority religious rights. A growing body of international agreements, however, has supported deeper inroads in protecting religious freedom and freedom of conscience. As Drinan indicates, the UN Charter mentions human rights five times, but it never offers a right to religious freedom based on the...