In 1789, both the U.S. Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen guaranteed American and French citizens the freedom of religion. How has the concept of religious liberty been applied, protected, and interpreted in both countries over the past two centuries? French political scientist Denis Lacorne and law professor Mathilde Philip-Gay join American political scientist Jonathan Laurence and law professor Michael McConnell for a discussion exploring the similarities and differences. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.
This program is presented in partnership with The Cultural Services of the French Embassy as part of a series on freedom of religion and speech in France and the United States.
Participants
Denis Lacorne is a researcher at the Paris Institute of Political Science’s Center for International Studies in France. He is the author of several books, including The Limits of Tolerance: Enlightenment Values and Religious Fanaticism and Religion in America: A Political History. Lacorne has been a visiting professor at the University of California Irvine, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, and a visiting fellow at Stanford University, the University of California Berkeley, New York University, and Columbia University, among others.
Mathilde Philip-Gay is professor of public law and co-director of the Center for Constitutional Law at Jean Moulin University Lyon III in France, where she also co-directs the university’s diploma in "religion, religious freedom and secularism." She is the author of Droit de la laïcité (Secular Law), as well as approximately 20 articles or case law notes in legal journals.
Jonathan Laurence is professor of political science at Boston College and an affiliate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. He is a former fellow of the American Academy in Berlin, Wissenchaftszentrum Berlin, Transatlantic Academy at the German Marshall Fund, Fafo Institute/Norwegian Research Council, LUISS University-Rome, Sciences Po-Paris, and the Brookings Institution. Laurence is the author of several books, including Coping with Defeat: Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism and the Modern State and The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims.
Michael McConnell is the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is the author of new book is The President Who Would Not Be King: Executive Power Under the Constitution, Scalia's Constitution: Essays on Law and Education, and Religion and the Constitution. His upcoming book, Establishment of Religion: Neutrality, Accommodation, and Separation, will be published in 2021. McConnell has argued 15 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and formerly served as a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1777)
- Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789)
- French Constitution of October 4, 1958
- Denis Lacorne, The Limits of Tolerance: Enlightenment Values and Religious Fanaticism
- Denis Lacorne, Religion in America: A Political History
- Mathilde Philip-Gay, Droit de la laïcité
- Jonathan Laurence, Coping with Defeat: Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism, and the Modern State
- Jonathan Laurence, The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims: The State's Role in Minority Integration
- Ed. Michael McConnell and Angela Carmella, Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought
- Ed. McConnell et al, Religion and the Constitution, Fourth Edition
- Marci Hamilton and Michael McConnell, National Constitution Center: Interactive Constitution, "The Establishment Clause"
- Roger Cohen, The New York Times, "French National Assembly Backs Law to Combat Islamist Extremism"
- European Court of Human Rights
- Tandon v. Newsom (2021)
- National Constitution Center, We the People podcast, "President Biden's Executive Orders"
- Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018)
- Adam Liptak, The New York Times, "An Extraordinary Winning Streak for Religion at the Supreme Court"
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