“Freedom of Religion in the Law” with George Letsas, Cécile Laborde and Enzo Rossi

“Liberal Equality and Freedom  of Religion” with Micah Schwartzman, Alan Patten, Peter Jones

“Toleration, Liberalism, Identity” with Chandran Kukathas, Rainer Forst, Akeel Bilgrami

“Churches and Freedom of Association” with Jean Cohen, Chiara Cordelli, Annabelle Lever

“Liberal Neutrality and Religion” with Andrew Koppelman, Matthew Clayton, Matteo Bonotti

“The Rights and Wrongs of Religious Establishment” with Sune Laegaard, Ronan McCrea, Saladin Meckled-Garcia

“Religion in Public Justification” with Cristina Lafont, Corey Brettschneider, Kevin Vallier

“Accommodation and Its Limits” with Jonathan Seglow, Daniel Weinstock, Daniel Statman

“The Rights of Conscience” with Emanuela Ceva, Simon Cabulea May, Maeve Cooke

The RAPT Conference on Religion in Liberal Political Philosophy is starting tomorrow, Wednesday 10 June, at 2pm.

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.

Admission is free, but registration is required. To register, please follow this link.

Liberal political philosophers have recently received criticism for their inadequate grasp or unreflective use of the category of religion. Liberal philosophers, it is said, have not sufficiently reflected on the specific trajectory of western secularism. As a result, liberal theories of freedom of religion, of state neutrality, of non-establishment and of the rights of conscience are conceptually, as well as normatively, problematic. This conference will present cutting-edge work in political philosophy that takes these criticisms seriously and offers new perspectives on the normative place of religion in liberal political philosophy.

Conference themes include,

· secularism, church-state separation and non-establishment
· liberal neutrality
· religious exemptions
· the rights of conscience
· public reason and religious arguments

Confirmed speakers: Akeel Bilgrami, Matteo Bonotti, Corey Brettschneider, Kimberley Brownlee, Emanuela Ceva, Matthew Clayton, Jean L. Cohen, Maeve Cooke, Chiara Cordelli, Rainer Forst, Peter Jones, Andrew Koppelman, Chandran Kukathas, Sune Laegaard, Cécile Laborde, Cristina Lafont, George Letsas, Annabelle Lever, Simon Cabulea May, Ronan McCrea, Saladin Meckled Garcia, Alan Patten, Enzo Rossi, Micah Schwartzman, Jonathan Seglow, Daniel Statman, Kevin Vallier, Daniel Weinstock.

The conference is convened by Cécile Laborde, Aurélia Bardon and Lois Lee.

Further details, including conference registration, are forthcoming. If you wish to receive updates about the conference by email, or have any other query, please contact Aurélia Bardon (a.bardon@ucl.ac.uk) or Lois Lee (l.lee@ucl.ac.uk).