An NEH Summer Institute for Higher Education Faculty
“[L]aw is too important to be left to the lawyers.” - Harold Berman and Samir N. Saliba, The Nature and Functions of Law (2009)
The study of law and its foundations, its development and its aspirations, has long provided a space to engage with the world as shaped by law—and with law as shaped by the world. One need to look no further than the U.S. Constitution, the “law of the land” and an aspirational and incomplete reminder of contested priorities, competing notions of justice, and enshrined hopes and fears for the future. But we live in a complex legal ecosystem, shaped not only by the Constitution but by statutes and regulations at different levels of government that intersect and inform each other in intricate and dynamic ways. For humanities faculty not trained in law, seeking to understand that ecosystem and how it intersects with their own research and teaching can be daunting at best. Yet, the need for robust interdisciplinary engagement between law and the humanities remains critical if the humanities are to engage meaningfully with the challenges of society and law is to be a force for the positive resolution of social problems.
Drawing on 40 years of experience in interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching, the Center for the Study of Law and Religion will host a two-week residential summer Institute for higher education faculty on the fundamentals of law and religion for humanistic research and teaching. This institute will increase participants’ facility with law and humanities by exploring the interdisciplinary connections between religion and law in modern American jurisprudence, the structures and institutions of our legal system, and the broader American society.
By providing humanities faculty with an opportunity to study law and religion at a Center recognized as the birthplace of the field of law and religion and with faculty from a range of disciplinary perspectives, the Institute will equip participants with tools and insights for understanding these intersections in new ways, thereby yielding richer interdisciplinary research and teaching in their respective fields.
This Institute is timely because it offers robust study of the foundations of law at a time when trust in our nation’s institutions is in decline and American society faces increasingly complex legal, ethical, and moral questions posed by technological advancement, complex health disparities, and environmental catastrophe—all of which requires robust humanistic inquiry about and informed by law and all of which raise questions about the intersection of law and religion.
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