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    In the face of war and atrocities, the principles of the 75-year-old document remain sound.

  • Mary Ann Glendon, Marie-Thérèse Meulders-Klein, In Memoriam, in International Survey of Family Law (Robin Fretwell Wilson & june Carbone eds., 2023).

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    The two days of discussions began with a frank acknowledgment that religion has all too often been a source of, or a pretext for, conflict in today’s increasingly interdependent world.

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    Platón tuvo una desafortunada experiencia personal de la cosa pública. Quizás por ello escribió las Leyes, diálogo en donde uno de los personajes, el ateniense, lleva continuamente el debate a la idea de que el objetivo de la ley es guiar a los ciudadanos hacia la virtud, hacerlos nobles y sabios. El gran filósofo griego insiste en que el buen gobierno no puede darse por sentado y en que la razón es la clave del avance: No puede ser una casualidad que el nombre de esta institución tan maravillosa, la ley (nomos), se relacione de forma tan sugerente con la razón (nous).

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    FDR wanted the federal government to help with poor relief. He never meant for Uncle Sam to do it alone.

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    How far have we come putting into practice what was declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which this year marks its 70th anniversary? How can the Church respond today to the new challenges threatening these rights, whether relativism, fundamentalism, and persecution or new types of poverty and oppression? And with whom can the Church engage on these issues? With states, religious leaders, international institutions, cultural institutions, or first and foremost with global civil society? In addition, what are the roots of fundamental rights, and what response can there be to the danger of a multiplication of rights that can paradoxically threaten concepts on the rule of law and human dignity? These are the fundamental questions addressed and debated by the experts whose essays appear in this book. Fundamental Rights and Conflicts among Rights is divided into four parts: Genesis and Meaning of the Idea of Religious Liberty, Laicité and Natural Law, Birth and Transformation of the Culture of Liberty and Human Rights, and the Multiplication of Rights and the Risk of Destruction of the Idea of Right. Throughout the volume, prestigious international experts analyze these issues. Among them are Giuseppe Dalla Torre (Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta), Jean Louis Ska (Pontificio Istituto Biblico), Robert P. George (Princeton University), Marta Cartabia (vice president of the Italian Constitutional Court), Carlos Ignacio Massini (Mendoza, Argentina), Barbara Zehnpfennig (Universität Passau), Mary Ann Glendon (Harvard University), Joseph H. Weiler (New York University), and Roberto Baratta (Macerata, Italia). The volume also contains an essay by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state, on "The Church's Interlocutors in the Debate and in the Affirmation of Human Rights."

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  • Mary Ann Glendon, 70 Años de la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos, Nuestro Tiempo, Jan. 2019, at 104.

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  • Mary Ann Glendon, Alexis de Tocqueville, in Great French Christian Jurists 276 (Rafael Domingo ed., 2019).

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    This is the text of the opening keynote lecture delivered at the conference, “Is Religious Freedom under Threat?,” Christ Church, Oxford, May 23–25, 2018, convened by Oxford University's McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life and Emory University's Center for the Study of Law and Religion. It is truly an honor to deliver the opening lecture for this McDonald Conference titled “Is Religious Liberty under Threat?” Since it was only four years ago that I had given a talk on that subject for the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion’s Summer Academy, which built in turn upon my Harold Berman Lecture at Emory University two years before, I have had to give some serious thought to how I might avoid repeating myself. Yet when I looked back over what I said on those occasions, I wished that I had dwelt less upon the threats and more on the challenge of how to address them. What I would like to do in this lecture, therefore, is to offer some suggestions in the hope of stimulating discussion about how to make the case for religious freedom as a fundamental human right in today's increasingly secular liberal democracies.

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    This book is published by the International Academy of Comparative Law to honor five great comparatists: Jean-Louis Baudouin from Canada, Xavier Blanc-Jouvan from France, Mary Ann Glendon from the United States of America, Hein Kötz from ...

  • Mary Ann Glendon, Preface to 変容する家族と新たな財産 (The New Family and the New Property) (Makoto Arai trans., Nippon Hyoronsha 2018)(1981).

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    〈家族〉が扶養制度としての機能を喪失し、職業が〈新たな資産〉としての価値を纏う現代。私法の衰退への予見と警鐘の書。

  • Mary Ann Glendon, 変容する家族と新たな財産 (The New Family and the New Property) (Makoto Arai trans., Nippon Hyoronsha 2018)(1981).

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    〈家族〉が扶養制度としての機能を喪失し、職業が〈新たな資産〉としての価値を纏う現代。私法の衰退への予見と警鐘の書。

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  • Mary Ann Glendon, Preface to Shijjie Renquan Tixi de Zhongyao Shejishi (世界人权体系的重要设计师) [A Crucial Architect of the International Human Rights System], (Pinghua Sun author & trans., Social Sciences Academic Press (China), 2017).

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  • Mary Ann Glendon, Fix to Little Sisters’ Contraception Fight Lies with Obamacare, Nat’l L. J., Apr. 4, 2016, at 27.

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  • Mary Ann Glendon, Foreword to Robert P. George, Conscience and Its Enemies: Confronting the Dogmas of Liberal Secularism (rev. ed. 2016).

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    "This nutshell offers a general introduction to comparative law that includes both an overview of the methods of comparative law as well as of the two most widespread legal traditions in the world: civil (or Romano-Germanic) law and common law. For both legal traditions, this expert discussion covers their history; legal structures, including constitutional systems, courts, and judicial review; the roles of central legal actors, including lawyers, judges, and scholars; an overview of civil and criminal procedure; the principal sources of law and divisions of substantive law; and the judicial process. Throughout, the discussion also includes references to the place and the importance of supranational law and institutions and their impact on the civil law and common law traditions in Europe"--Publisher.

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    The chapter argues that whether religious freedom will rise or decline in status as a fundamental right will depend to some extent on the educational, legal, and political efforts in which many activists are engaged, but it will depend even more on the attitudes and actions of religious believers and leaders themselves. Theirs is the responsibility to educate and encourage their co-religionists to the responsible exercise of religious freedom. It is up to them to find ways to advance their religiously grounded moral viewpoints with reasoning that is intelligible to all men and women of good will. It is up to each religious group to reject ideologies that manipulate religion for political purposes, or that use religion as a pretext for violence. It is up to each religious group to find resources within its own traditions for promoting mutual respect and tolerance.

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    This new edition includes some significant revisions since the last edition was published in 2007. In addition to updating the materials to take into account developments in the law in the examined jurisdictions, the new edition also places discussion of the relevant regional law, for the most part European Union and Council of Europe law, within the examinations of the specific legal systems themselves (more accurately reflecting the realities of operating within those systems). In addition, there are updates and addition to the in-depth chapters focusing on discrete comparative problems and exercises.

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    In this lecture, Professor Glendon discusses the evolution of comparative law in the United States since the American Association of the Comparative Study of Law (now the American Society of Comparative Law) was founded in 1951. The bulk of the lecture is devoted to the Supreme Court's recent references to foreign law in constitutional adjudication and how they illustrate the benefits and risks of comparative law in the judicial process.

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    This work represents proceedings of a conference held at Harvard Law School. Religious and secular seem to be opposite concepts and realities. Nevertheless, while starting from religion, the concept of secular as non-religious is understandable, the converse is not true: starting from secular, we cannot arrive at the concept of religion. Since the concept of religion cannot be understood as that which is non-secular, there is an unavoidable superiority of the idea of religion over the idea of secularity. It is impossible to emphasise the primacy of secularity without denying the reality of religion or understanding it in a distorted manner. But in a world where religion is increasingly privatized and public spaces have been largely emptied of religious references, it also seems impossible to talk seriously about religion without dealing with the idea of secularity. The relation between religion and secularity is a question of the most decisive importance in general and in the present situation. Confronting this question in an open spirit is the principal goal of this book.

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  • Mary Ann Glendon, La Libertà Religiosa, in La Legge di Re Salomone: Ragione e diritto nei discorsi di Benedetto XVI 36 (Marta Cartabia & Andrea Simoncini eds., RCS Libri, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, BUR Saggi Rizzoli 2013).

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    Along the course of his pontificate, Benedict XVI was called upon to confront the political and cultural leaders of many European countries and major international institutions. This confrontation resulted in a complex set of reflections on the liberal political and legal order, which touches on the fundamental issues of democracy, the relationship between law, law and justice, religious freedom, and the role of believers in the public sphere. In this volume, which collects for the first time such interventions, some jurists and intellectuals of different cultural, political, religious, and geographic extraction face the main "legal disputes" of Benedict XVI, starting with Regensburg in 2006 until That of the Berlin Bundestag in 2011, thus launching a public discussion about the precious cultural heritage of a Pontiff particularly sensitive to the problems of civil coexistence. Benedict XVI's public opinion reveals, in the light of this analysis, unexpected content that questions the most common stereotypes about Catholic culture, the faith-reason relationship, and the position of the same Pontiff in the face of contemporaneity. Conceived before the "renunciation" of Benedict XVI, this volume assumes the value of a tribute to the emerged Pope, witnessing an open reason that allows dialogue with each other. Preface by Giorgio Napolitano.

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    The Academy’s Eighteenth Plenary Session was the second of its three projected meetings devoted to reflection on the themes of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris in the light of the changes that have taken place since that historic document was issued nearly fifty years ago. The Academy began its examination of the current status of those themes in 2011 with a Plenary devoted to the encyclical’s engagement with the modern human rights project, focusing specifically on religious freedom as emblematic both of the aspirations and the dilemmas of the universal human rights idea. This year, in an outstanding program coordinated by Professor Russell Hittinger, we turned directly to the global quest for peace. The Plenary yielded a sobering answer to the question that Pope Benedict had posed to representatives of the world’s religions who gathered at Assisi last year to pray for peace: “What is the state of play with regard to peace today?” Many speakers noted how much the global landscape had changed since Pacem in Terris addressed the threats to peace in 1963. Yet there was general consensus that today the reign of peace remains elusive, menaced by regional conflicts, civil wars, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the rise of terrorism by non-state actors, some claiming religious motives.

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    In the article, Professor Glendon traces the influence of human rights on Catholic social thought through five phases: (1) during the post-World War II human rights "moment"; (2) during the Cold War years; (3) during the fall of oppressive regimes in South Africa and Eastern Europe; (4) during the 1990s, and (5) during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. In the history of Catholic social doctrine, surely one of the most important developments has been the Church’s assimilation of what Pope Benedict XVI has called the ‘true conquests of the Enlightenment’. Nowhere is that phenomenon more striking than in the extent to which Catholic social doctrine has appropriated, and even championed, human rights ideas. The influence of human rights on Catholic social thought – and on the Holy See’s international advocacy – has been widely discussed and debated. What has received less attention is the reciprocal character of that relationship. Hence, my assignment at this session is to initiate some reflection by the members of the Academy on the ways in which Catholic social doctrine has influenced, and might influence in the future, the theory and practice of human rights. In this paper, I propose to trace that influence through five phases: first, in the post-World War II human rights ‘moment’; second, in the Cold War years; third, in the heady days when human rights ideas were among the forces that led to the fall of oppressive regimes in South Africa and Eastern Europe; fourth, in the contests over meaning, interpretation and implementation that intensified in the 1990s; and finally in the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI whose 2008 speech at the UN contained several pointed warnings about the future direction of the human rights movement.

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    The Proceedings of the 18th Plenary Session on The Global Quest for Tranquillitas Ordinis: Pacem in Terris, Fifty Years Later, April 17 - May 1, 2012.

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    This chapter discusses the author's concerns regarding how, during the second half of the 20th century, traditional ideas about what it meant to be a good judge were being challenged by a new, romantic, ideal. Judges were praised for compassion rather than partiality, boldness rather than steadiness of temperament, creativity rather than craftsmanship, and specific results regardless of the effect on the legal order as a whole. In our increasingly heterogeneous nation, it is more important than ever for citizens to be able to rely on the administration of justice by impartial judges without regard to a person’s wealth, power, ethnicity, or other characteristics. It is more important than ever that the lives, liberties, and fortunes of our citizens not be left to the mercy of a judge’s personal opinion of what procedures are fair, what outcome is just, who does or does not need protection, and what Congress or the Constitution ought to have said rather than what is present in the text. It is more important than ever to have judges with a demonstrated capacity to take the judicial oath and mean it, to swear to: “administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me according to the best of my abilities and understanding agreeably to the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

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    Although the Bill of Rights does not establish a hierarchy among the values it seeks to protect, Supreme Court decisions over time have classified certain rights as essential to a fundamental scheme of ordered liberty. The prominent place of the First Amendment’s provisions protecting religious freedom on this “Honor Roll of Superior Rights” has seldom been openly challenged. Recent legal, political, and cultural developments, however, prompt the question whether religious freedom is becoming, de facto, a lesser right—one that can be easily overridden by other rights, claims, and interests. On the legal front, as freedom of religion comes into increasing conflict with nondiscrimination norms and claims based on abortion rights and various lifestyle liberties, the rights of religious entities to choose their own personnel, and even to publicly teach and defend their positions on controversial issues, are coming under intense attack. The deferential standard of review adopted by the Supreme Court in 1990, moreover, has put a considerable damper on efforts to mount effective legal challenges to restrictions on free exercise. A political consequence of the Court’s deferential standard has been not only to discourage religious persons and groups from defending their rights but also to embolden those who aim to reduce the influence of religion—especially organized religion—in American society. Nor is the status of religious freedom as secure in American culture as it once was. Recent social science data indicates that, ironically, the social consensus behind religious freedom seems to be weakening just when pathbreaking work has begun to document the social and political benefits of religious freedom. I conclude that among these legal, political, and cultural challenges, the most ominous is cultural. For, as Learned Hand once said, if liberty dies in the hearts of men and women, “no constitution, no law, no court can save it.” That does not mean that the legal and political efforts carried on by friends of religious freedom are fruitless. Whether religious freedom retains a prominent place on the honor roll of superior rights will certainly depend to some extent on those efforts. But even more decisive will be the attitudes and behavior of religious believers and leaders themselves.

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    Proceedings of the 17th Plenary Session, The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, 29 April - 3 May 2011.

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    The relationship between politics and the academy has been fraught with tension and regret—and the occasional brilliant success—since Plato himself. This book examines thinkers who have collaborated with leaders, from ancient Syracuse to the modern White House, in a series of brisk portraits that explore the meeting of theory and reality. The book discusses a roster of great names, from Edmund Burke to Alexis de Tocqueville, Machiavelli to Rousseau, John Locke to Max Weber, down to Charles Malik, who helped Eleanor Roosevelt draft the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With each, it explores the eternal questions they faced, including: Is politics such a dirty business that I shouldn't get involved? Will I betray my principles by pursuing public office? Can I make a difference, or will my efforts be wasted? Even the most politically successful intellectuals, it notes, did not all end happily. The brilliant Marcus Tullius Cicero, for example, reached the height of power in the late Roman Republic, then fell victim to intrigue, assassinated at Mark Antony's order. Yet others had a lasting impact. The legal scholar Tribonian helped Byzantine Emperor Justinian I craft the Corpus Juris Civilis , which became a bedrock of Western law. Portalis and Napoleon emulated them, creating the civil code that the French emperor regarded as his greatest legacy.

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    The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Sixteenth Plenary Session, 30 April-4 May 2010. The presentations at the Plenary began with analyses of the nature and causes of the current crisis, and its impact on peoples and communities throughout the world, especially those who were least advantaged even before the recent upheavals. The discussion then moved to what needs to be done to ‘re-plan the journey’ if economic systems are to serve the common good. Four principal themes emerged from the presentations and discussions: 1. Financialization of the economy and human relations. There was general consensus that the current economic crisis had its roots in the financial sector. The fragility of the economic system was partly due to over-reliance on speculative financial activities separated from productive activity in the real economy. Some speakers also warned of the danger of the ‘financialization’ of human relations, even within the family. 2. A second common theme concerned the toll that economic crisis was taking on poor countries, even though its origin was in the wealthy nations. Some speakers noted that if one compares the cost of the financial bailouts to the amounts needed to provide the world’s poor with basic nutrition, it is evident that the crisis has distracted greatly from urgent questions of development. Others pointed out that meeting basic needs, especially for children, beginning in the womb, makes a decisive contribution to economic productivity. 3. There was also broad consensus on the need for improved methods of regulation with careful attention to the proper roles of governmental entities, private actors and international bodies. A highlight of the Plenary was a session featuring three invited experts on banking: Lucas Papademos of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, Governor of the Bank of Italy, and Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, President of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (the ‘Vatican Bank’). Joined by Academicians Hans Tietmeyer, former president of the Deutsche Bundesbank, and Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista, former Minister of Economics in Mexico, this group discussed the need for stronger regulation of international finance, and suggested various concrete measures to assure greater transparency in financial instruments and to avoid the moral hazards arising from bailouts. 4. Finally, the members welcomed the hopeful note sounded by Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo who pointed out that the economic crisis will certainly stimulate the search for much-needed innovations in industry, agriculture and employment to better serve the world’s needs for food, renewable energy, and transportation. In his summation as the Coordinator of the Plenary, Professor Raga called attention to the responsibilities of educators. Given the pervasive emphasis on materialism and utilitarianism, he said, one can hardly be surprised ‘that in the current crisis, there has been an abundance of cheating and fraud and excessive regard for the short-term coupled with disdain for that which belongs to the long-term’. Looking to the future, he called for cooperation among ‘open-minded people, with the capacity to integrate into working teams and with ability for reflection; people who are convinced that the world is so complex that only with the cooperation of others will we achieve the fruit of our labors; moreover, that only with a joint vision will it be possible to find a solution’.

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    The Proceedings of the 16th Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (Acta 16), 30 April - 4 May 2010).

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    The Proceedings of the 15th Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, 1-5 May 2009, Acta 15.