JSI Workshop: Positive Pluralism and its Limits

In-person event

This project asks how freedom of religion should be construed when applied to religious insular communities whose way of life is often at odds with Western assumptions of a good life. I will argue for protection of distinctive religious communal identities as entities in and of themselves that are deserving of constitutional protection on the ground that they contribute to a thick pluralism. I propose a theory of pluralism that is premised on its positive value, and not merely on what John Rawls calls the “fact of pluralism.” At the same time, I argue that it is equally if not more important to ensure that members of such communities have a meaningful ability to exit from them. The project will spotlight several concrete impediments to the “right of exit” in one large insular religious community: the Hasidic community in New York. It will lay out not only how internal communal practices—including and most notably the lack of secular education—can hamper members’ ability to exit but also how the state, via its family courts, contribute to its curtailment.

About the speaker

Zalman Rothschild is Assistant Professor of Law and Horn Family Distinguished Research Scholar in Law and Religion at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Previously, he was a Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School. His research focuses on the First Amendment, anti-discrimination law, and law and religion.

Before becoming a Bigelow Fellow, Zalman served as a law clerk to Judge Jane Roth on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and practiced law for several years as a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss. During that time, Zalman was recognized by The American Lawyer in its “Litigator of the Week” profile for winning a Fourth Amendment appeal and securing the reversal of all convictions of his client (2021) and received the “On the Rise—Top 40 Young Lawyer” award from the American Bar Association (2022).

Zalman holds a JD, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and a PhD in Religion from New York University.

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Tuesday 18 June, 2024

Time: 2-3pm

Venue: Level 4, Board Room, New Law Building (F10)

CPD Points: 1

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This event is proudly presented by the Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence at The University of Sydney Law School.