Rafael Domingo, a law professor and research fellow at the Institute Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra and visiting professor at Emory University in Atlanta (USA), has a new book, God and the Secular Legal System, published as part of the Cambridge Studies in Law and Christianity series.

Domingo’s goal is to present a coherent constitutional framework for the protection of rights to religion and freedom of conscience in this age of diversity, interdependence, and secularization. Domingo objects to both traditional religious and current liberal approaches to religious freedom. “The traditional religious approach is inevitably exclusivist, while the liberal approach is inevitably reductionist,” he says.

Domingo offers a third path: a theistically oriented conception of the secular legal system that is able to embrace nontheistic approaches.

According to Prof. Domingo, “Secular legal systems should treat God, religion, and conscience with respect. Respect demands not only positive feelings or deference toward these realities, but also specific actions that express and reflect that appreciation”.

“Of the secular legal system, in the case of God, respect requires recognition; in the case of religion, toleration; and in the case of conscience, accommodation. And of citizens, in the case of God, respect requires free mention and invocation; in the case of religion, free exercise and practice; in the case of conscience, moral autonomy,” he stands.

Rafael Domingo received his PhD in law and has been a professor of Roman law at the University of Cantabria and the University of Navarra. He directed the Garrigues Chair in Global Law from its inception in 2003 until 2009, and is a founding director of The Global Law Collection, published by Thomson Reuters Aranzadi. He has also undertaken several research stays at foreign universities, such as the University of Munich (Germany), Columbia University (USA), and the University of Roma-La Sapienza (Italy).