RELIGION IN LIBERAL POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
RAPT CONFERENCE
10-12 JUNE 2015, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Sessions take place in the Gustave Tuck lecture theatre.
Refreshments will be served in the South Cloisters – apart from the reception on Friday,
which will take place in the Council Room at the School of Public Policy, Tavistock Square;
delegates will be guided to this venue on the day.
DAY 1 – WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE
14:00
Welcome & Registration
14:30
Freedom of Religion in the Law
Chair: Philip Pettit, Princeton University
The Irrelevance of Religion to Law
George Letsas, University College London
Disaggregating Religion
Cécile Laborde, University College London
Understanding Religion, Governing Religion
Enzo Rossi, University of Amsterdam
16:00
Coffee break
16:30
Liberal Equality and Freedom of Religion
Chair: Albert Weale, University College London
Religion, Equality, and Anarchy: A Taxonomy of Liberal Theories
Micah Schwartzman, University of Virginia
Three Theories of Religious Liberty
Alan Patten, Princeton University
Religious Exemption and Distributive Justice
Peter Jones, Newcastle University
18:00
Drinks Reception
DAY 2 – THURSDAY 11 JUNE
09:30
Toleration, Liberalism, Identity
Chair: Leif Wenar, King’s College London
Toleration Without Limits: A Reconstruction and Defence of Pierre Bayle’s
Philosophical Commentary
Chandran Kukathas, London School of Economics
Religious Toleration from the Enlightenment to a ‘Postsecular’ Age: Bayle, Kant
and Habermas
Rainer Forst, Goethe University Frankfurt
Why does Liberalism Find it so Hard to Cope with Religious Identity?
Akeel Bilgrami, Columbia University
11:00
Coffee break
11:30
Churches and Freedom of Association
Chair: Jeffrey Howard, University of Essex
Freedom of Religion, Inc.
Jean Cohen, Columbia University
Beyond States and Firms: Democratizing Organized Religion
Chiara Cordelli, University of Exeter
Equality v. Conscience? Ethics and the Provision of Public Services
Annabelle Lever, University of Geneva
13:00
Lunch
14:00
Liberal Neutrality and Religion
Chair: Avia Pasternak, University College London
Why Rawls Can’t Support Liberal Neutrality: The Case of Special Treatment for
Religion
Andrew Koppelman, Northwestern University
Is Ethical Independence Enough?
Matthew Clayton, University of Warwick
Reasonable Political Parties, Religion, and the Idea of an Overlapping Consensus
Matteo Bonotti, Queen’s University Belfast
15:30
Coffee break
16:00
THE RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENT
Chair: Clare Chambers, University of Cambridge
What’s (Un)Problematic About Religious Establishment? The Alienation and
Symbolic Equality Accounts
Sune Laegaard, Roskilde University
The Consequences of Disaggregation
Ronan McCrea, University College London
There’s No Human Right to Neutrality!
Saladin Meckled-Garcia, University College London
19:30 Conference dinner for speakers and chairs
DAY 3 – FRIDAY 12 JUNE
09:30
RELIGION IN PUBLIC JUSTIFICATION
Chair: Adam Swift, University of Warwick
Citizens in Robes (or How Religious and Secular Citizens can Equally own the
Institutions of a Liberal Democracy)
Cristina Lafont, Northwestern University
Praying for America: The Constitutional Ban on Theocratic Reasoning in the
Establishment, Free Exercise and Equal Protection Clauses
Corey Brettschneider, Brown University
The Moral Basis of Religious Exemptions
Kevin Vallier, Bowling Green State University
11:00
Coffee break
11:30
ACCOMMODATIONS AND ITS LIMITS
Chair: Véronique Munoz-Dardé, University College London
Religious Accommodation: Responsibility, Agency and Integrity
Jonathan Seglow, Royal Holloway
Children as Limits to Religious Freedom
Daniel Weinstock, McGill University
Religious Freedom and the Protection of Holy Places
Daniel Statman, University of Haifa
13:00
Lunch
14:00
THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE
Chair: John Horton, Keele University
Is Religious Conviction Special?
Kimberley Brownlee, University of Warwick
How Should We Respect Conscience?
Emanuela Ceva, University of Pavia
Exemptions for Conscience
Simon May, Florida State University
Conscience in Public Life
Maeve Cooke, University College Dublin
16:00
Drinks Reception
Conference organisers:
Aurélia Bardon, Lois Lee, Cécile Laborde
Conference assistants:
Jennifer Brown, Cristobal Bellolio, Stijn Smet