A Review of <em>Constitutional Theocracy</em> by Ran Hirschl

Abstract

Ran Hirschl’s Constitutional Theocracy1 is a comprehensive and sophisticated analysis of the relationship between religions, constitutions, and courts across much of the contemporary world. The book is based on extensive analyses of national debates and jurisprudence on issues of the relationship between state and religion and secular and religious law. The book draws on debates taking place among legal scholars, political scientists, political sociologists, and social philosophers and is uniquely poised to speak to multiple audiences. It also draws more general conclusions about trajectories of sociojuridical change in a world increasingly defined by the public resurgence of religious identities and claims-making. The work is distinctive in several ways. First, it conceptualizes a new legal order—constitutional theocracy—that has emerged in the wake of the global resurgence of religion. Hirschl defines constitutional theocracies as characterized by simultaneous adherence to modern constitutional principles, including the core distinction between political and religious authority, and religious principles.2 The latter aspect entails constitutional sanctioning of a “state religion” and religious law as a or the main source of legislation. Second, it examines the relationship between state and religion implicit in constitutional theocracies as part of a larger continuum of “state-and-religion models.”3 One end of this continuum is occupied by communist regimes that have adopted active campaigns and policies to eradicate religion, and the other end is occupied by countries like Egypt, Israel, and Pakistan—some of the main exemplars of constitutional theocracy discussed in the book—that perennially struggle with reconciling