Journal article

Religion as Politics not Law: the Religion Clauses in the Australian Constitution

Carolyn Evans

RELIGION STATE & SOCIETY | ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD | Published : 2008

Abstract

The Australian Constitution provides for the protection of religious freedom and prohibits establishment in very similar terms to the United States Constitution. Yet while Australian judges have often stated the importance of religious freedom in a democratic state and have defined religion in a broad, culturally sensitive way, they have taken a narrow approach to the scope of religious freedom and to the meaning of establishment. The end result is that the courts have played very little role in determining the boundaries of acceptable government or legislative behaviour in the regulation of religion. Instead, the key decisions have been left to the political branches of government, which ha..

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University of Melbourne Researchers