Italian Doctoral School of Religious Studies

This curriculum promotes specialized research concerning every possible interaction between the legal and religious phenomena in the dual perspective of state/supranational/international law and different denominational systems. Thus, the curriculum includes studies in the areas of freedom of religion or belief, non-discrimination, state/church legal relations, the law of faith communities within their own jurisdictions, and all topics in the tradition of ecclesiastical law. Emphasis is given to the organization of the Roman Catholic Church (canon law), analyzed in its historical-institutional development and current positive constructions, and the Byzantine and Protestant canonical tradition, as well as legal systems of Judaic and Islamic origin. Methodologically, the research can also be developed from a historical, comparative and interdisciplinary perspective; students will assess normative, jurisprudential, magisterial and doctrinal sources with originality and mastery. In addition, they will analyze comparatively in light of the most influential factors/processes on legal evolutions affecting religious phenomena: multireligiosity and new religions; disciplining, secularization, reconfessionalization and growing religious demands; securitarian, technological, ecological and sustainable development challenges.