69910 - Comparative analysis of religious right-based

Learning outcomes

The course will delve into some of the topics of greatest interest relating to the sectors indicated above

Course contents

The course enables students to develop a solid understanding of the main regulatory systems associated with different religious traditions—Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Eastern cultural traditions, and new religious movements—and of how these systems interact with state legal frameworks. In line with contemporary approaches to comparative law, students will progressively strengthen the methodologies and skills needed to critically analyse the many dimensions involved in the relationship between religious norms and secular law. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify areas of dialogue and cooperation, as well as zones of overlap or tension, between state law and religious legal systems. They will also learn to develop informed strategies for addressing the challenges that arise in multicultural and multireligious societies. More specifically, the course aims to provide participants with the practical ability to apply comparative legal concepts to real cases. After an initial overview of the relevant sources, the course will examine a range of topics in which religious law plays a central regulatory role, including personal status, marriage and family, gender issues, bioethics, and religious dietary rules. Ultimately, the goal is to equip students with the essential skills needed to interpret the role of religion in contemporary legal contexts.

 

I. Sources of Law

Judaism:

1. The sources and their evolution: from the origins to the Talmudic treatises.

2. The current role of rabbinical courts.

3. Notes on personal status.

Catholicism:

1. Divine law and human law: the foundations of the law of the Catholic Church.

2. A brief journey through history: canons and decretals.

3. From the Corpus iuris canonici to the codifications of canon law.

4. Notes on personal status.

Orthodoxy and Protestantism:

1. A (normative) split: the sources of law in the Orthodox Churches and in Protestantism.

2. Notes on personal status.

Islam:

1. A complex framework of sources.

2. Historical evolution: the work of the classical legal schools.

3. Recent interpretative trends.

4. Notes on personal status.

Hinduism:

1. The concept of dharma.

2. The Vedic tradition.

3. Notes on personal status.

Buddhism:

1. Buddhist dharma.

2. The law of the monastic community.

3. The varied normative fragmentation of the Buddhist universe.

4. Notes on personal status.

II. Marriage and Family

1. Structure of Jewish marriage (qiddushin and nissuin): the centrality of the family in Talmudic tradition.

2. Islamic matrimonial rules: rights and duties. The role of the family as a fundamental social unit.

3. Canonical marriage as a "sacramental covenant". The nullity of marriage and its procedural declaration.

4. Doctrinal and disciplinary differences regarding the value of marriage in Orthodoxy and Protestantism: family models and community practices.

5. Rites and conceptions of the marital union in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism: spiritual and social functions of the family.

6. The impact of new religious realities on marriage and family dynamics in secularized societies.

7. The dissolution of marriage before religious legal systems.

8. Filiation in confessional legal traditions.

 

III. Gender Issues

1. The role of women in Judaism: gender differentiation as a resource.

2. The renewed role of the laity: women and men in the canonical legal system. The issue of female ordination.

3. Rights and duties of women in Islamic law: matrimonial, family, and inheritance aspects.

4. Gender issues in Eastern religious traditions.

5. Comparative insights with secular legal systems.

 

V. Bioethics

1. Voluntary termination of pregnancy and euthanasia in Jewish law.

2. Christianity and bioethical issues: abortion, medically assisted reproduction, “surrogacy,” and end-of-life matters.

3. The beginning and end of life in Islamic law: emerging issues.

4. Bioethical perspectives rooted in Eastern religious traditions: medically assisted reproduction, "surrogacy", research, and experimentation.

V. Religious Dietary Prescriptions

1. Dietary rules in Jewish and Islamic law and their multiple implications.

2. Open questions concerning ritual slaughter: religious freedom and animal welfare.

3. Catholic and Orthodox Christianity: historical notes on the evolution of norms regarding food. The centrality of fasting.

4. Physical and spiritual purity: food and ritual in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism.

5. Comparative insights: food as an identity symbol in today’s multicultural society.

 

Students who attend the lessons will be offered the opportunity to carry out an in-depth work on a subject of their choice, with the help of the Professor. During the lessons, attending students will be informed about the reduction of the program (and of the parts of the handbooks) that they will have to study.

For the integration of 1, 2, 3, credits, students must contact the Professor by e-mail to define a custom program.

Erasmus students must contact the Professor by e-mail to define a custom program.

 

Readings/Bibliography

S. FERRARI (a cura di), Strumenti e percorsi di diritto comparato delle religioni, II ed., il Mulino, Bologna, 2022, only: parte I, parte V, parte VI, parte VII.

In addition, students have to add two chapter of their choice from the following volume:

G. BONI, A. ZANOTTI (a cura di), Matrimonio e famiglia tra diritti religiosi e diritti secolari, Zanichelli Editore, Bologna, 2024.

Teaching methods

The course will develop through lectures, seminars and meetings with experts.

Lectures will be given in the IInd semester. As a consequence, students obtaining their attendance certificate in the current academic year are allowed to take their exam only from the month of May. The exam program coincides with the subjects of the course.

Students will be informed about dates and times of the seminars and the meetings with experts during the lectures or through notices, also on the Faculty website. The Professor uses slides (or other supplementary material) that will be made available to students on the Virtuale (Virtual Learning Environment) platform.

Students who attend the course will be invited to actively take part in the analysis of the themes studied in class: students will also be given the opportunity to prepare – with the assistance of the Professor – a written paper about specific issues they are particularly interested in, which will be previously corrected and discussed together, and then evaluated during the final exam, thus concurring to the overall assessment. For this purpose, one or more practice sessions will be held in classroom or online, in parallel to lessons, in which methods for searching for sources and bibliographic materials, and for the formal writing, structuring and drafting of juridical texts will be explained: on this occasion, students will be given time for questions, requests for clarification and further information.

A service of teaching tutorship is provided to students who need clarification about the content of the course and the exam. Students who want to ask for its operating modes have to contact the teacher by e-mail in order to receive communications.

Assessment methods

The verification of learning outcomes consists in an exclusively oral final exam, which will explore the acquisition of the required knowledge and skills through an oral examination sustained with the Professor.

The exam will cover the issues described in the “Course contents” section. The examination entails the assignment of a grade.

Through such exam, the knowledge learned and the critical and methodological skills acquired by the student will be assessed.

In addition to the possession of a mastery of expression and of an appropriate technical language, the student will also have to prove to be able to move confidently within the system of the legal sources on the matter, to have a clear perception of the received information and to have understood and adequately deepened the themes that were addressed in class and explained in the reference textbooks, which will have to be described and argued properly. Learning such skills is easier during the course, the attendance of which is recommended in order to improve the learning process and therefore the student’s performance during the exam.

As previously mentioned, the aim of the oral exam is to assess the actual achievement of the learning outcomes: therefore, both the knowledge of the relevant legal issues and the student’s capability to apply it in order to realize the required logical-deductive connections will be taken into account.

By way of a mere example, the assignment of the final grade will be based on the following criteria:

Sufficient knowledge of a very small number of the topics addressed during the course and analytical skills that only emerge through extensive support by the interviewer, with the use of a language that is not incorrect but is not completely accurate either → 18-19;

Fairly good knowledge of a limited number of the topics addressed during the course and analytical skills that are autonomous only on purely executive issues, with the use of a correct but not fully confident and exhaustive language → 20-24;

Good knowledge of a wide number of the topics addressed during the course and capability to develop autonomous analytical skills, with an efficient and confident use of a technically specific language → 25-29;

Extensive and substantially exhaustive knowledge of the whole program addressed during the course, capability to develop very good legal reasonings and to critically analyze and connect different topics, with a fully confident use of a technically specific language that shows a mature ability to develop original reflections → 30-30L.

The students who attend the course will also be given the opportunity to prepare – with the assistance of the teacher – a paper about specific issues they’re particularly interested in, which will be evaluated during the final exam and will concur to the overall assessment.

Students with learning disorders and/or temporary or permanent disabilities: please contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Students have to book the final exam on the web application AlmaEsami.

Thesis

For the assignment of a thesis, students must go to the Professor's office hours in order to discuss and select the subject.

 

Teaching tools

During the lessons, the Professor will supply and recommend texts and further learning material to complete the preparation.

Students will be informed about dates and times of the seminars and the meetings with experts during the lectures and through notices on the Faculty website.

The Professor uses slides that will be made available to students on the Virtuale (Virtual Learning Environment) platform in order to help them understanding the issues and the institutes explained during the lessons.

Students who need compensatory tools for reasons of disability or Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) will communicate to the teacher their needs so as to be directed to the dedicated person and arrange on the adoption of the most appropriate measures.

The collaborators of the Chair and the Professor receive the students on the same day.

A service of teaching tutorship is provided to students who need clarification about the content of the course and the exam. Students who want to ask for its operating modes have to contact the teacher by e-mail in order to receive communications.

 

Office hours

See the website of Nico Tonti