This class is designed to give students a basic understanding of religious arbitration in the United States. Religious arbitration spans the realms of commercial and family law. Its existence raises questions regarding the intersection of freedom of religion and freedom of contract and is rooted in the America's tradition of legal pluralism. Minority religious communities, such as Jews and Muslims, often utilize religious arbitration as a means of exercising their religious freedom.The course will begin by looking at the Federal Arbitration Act and understanding the legal framework in which religious arbitration operates. It will then move onto (1) the history of religious arbitration in England and the American colonies; and (2) contemporary issues in religious arbitration with a focus on religious minorities in the United States, including the impact of state based "Shariah Law Bans" on religious arbitration. The course will analyze the larger theoretical underpinnings of legal pluralism and multiculturalism at play in the literature on religious arbitration. The class will also contextualize the subject of religious arbitration within various governmental and constitutional structures exploring the application of religious arbitration in both family and commercial law. Attentive students should come away from the class with a working understanding of how religious arbitration fits into the larger American arbitration regime, as well as an appreciation for the theories of multiculturalism and legal pluralism employed in the debate on religious arbitration today.

Reading Materials: Readings will be from a professor-created collection provided on an online moodle site. Final grade will be based on a final term paper or final project/presentation, with added points for class participation.

This 1-credit course meets the first five weeks of term only.