Personal Autonomy in Plural Societies

Marie-Claire Foblets is Professor of Law at the University of Leuven, Belgium and since 2012 also Director of the Department of Law & Anthropology at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. She has held various visiting professorships both within and outside Europe. She has conducted extensive research and published widely on issues of migration law, citizenship/nationality laws, compulsory integration, anti-racism and non-discrimination, etc. In the field of anthropology of law, her research focuses on cultural diversity and legal practice, with a particular interest in the application of Islamic family law in Europe, and more recently in the accommodation of cultural and religious diversity under state law. Alison Dundes Renteln is Professor of Political Science, Anthropology, Law, and Public Policy at the University of Southern California, where she teaches International Law and Human Rights. She has taught judges, lawyers, court interpreters, jury consultants, and police officers at meetings of the American Bar Association, National Association of Women Judges, North American South Asian Bar Association, American Society of Trial Consultants, and others. She has collaborated with the UN on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, lectured on comparative legal ethics in Bangkok and Manila at ABA-sponsored conferences, and served on several California civil rights commissions and the California committee of Human Rights Watch. She has published extensively on her areas of research. Michele Graziadei is Professor of Comparative Law at the University of Turin, Italy. His research concentrates on the methodology of comparative law, legal pluralism, law and language, and on other theoretical problems relating to the comparison of laws. He has published widely in several languages, and has directed or taken part in international research projects concerning law and other social sciences. He is a member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, President of the Italian Society for Research on Comparative Law (SIRD), President of the Italian Group of the Association Capitant, and fellow of the European Centre on Tort and Insurance Law, Vienna. He has been a visiting professor at Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas, Cornell University, Université de Luxembourg, and Bar-Ilan University, and is visiting Professor at the Université Jean Moulin, Lyon III. He teaches at the Faculté internationale de droit comparé, Strasbourg.

Introduction: Individual Autonomy in Contemporary Plural Societies: How to Reconcile Competing Normative Standards? - Marie-Claire Foblets, Michele Graziadei and Alison Dundes Renteln

Part I: Autonomy in the Face of Cultural Diversity: Disciplinary Perspectives

1. The Fault in our Stars: Personal Autonomy, Philosophy, and the Law - Michele Graziadei

2. Confronting Autonomy in Liberal Practice - Geoffrey Brahm Levey

3. Autonomy and Deeply Embedded Cultural Identities - John Christman

4. Three Approaches to the Protection of Religious Freedom: Choice, Interest, Identity - Avigail Eisenberg

5. Appeals to Choice and Sexual Equality: Debates over Religious Attire - Monique Deveaux

6. Why the Individual must be Defended ~ Seemingly against all Anthropological Odds - Olaf Zenker

Part II: Autonomy in Context: Empirical Illustrations

A: The Majoritarian Assessment of Personal Autonomy

7. Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: Personal Autonomy as a Pillar for the Accommodation of Employees’ Religious Practices? - Katayoun Alidadi

8. Adopting a Face-Veil, Concluding an Islamic Marriage: Autonomy, Agency, and Liberal-Secular Rule - Annelies Moors

9. Unregistered Muslim Marriages in the UK: Examining Normative Influences Shaping Choice of Legal Protection - Rajnaara Akhtar

10. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Personal Autonomy, Forced Marriage, and the Inherent Jurisdiction in English Law - Alberto Neidhardt

11. Balancing Migration Policy and Personal Autonomy in Private International Law: A Shattered Illusion? - Jinske Verhellen

12. The Anti-Religious Bias in Personal Autonomy: Towards Coherence and a Solution - Toon Agten

13. Shaping Notions of Personal Autonomy in Plural Societies: Addressing Female Genital Cutting in France and the European Regulatory Framework’s Approach to this Custom - Lucia Bellucci

14. The Human Rights Dimensions of Virginity Restoration Surgery - Alison Dundes Renteln

B. Individual Agency in situ

15. ‘It is Better for Me to Agree When My Guardian is Here’: Consent and Relational Personhood in Postcolonial Malawi - Jessica Johnson

16. The Multiple Search for Autonomy among Moluccans in the Netherlands: A Relational Approach - Keebet von Benda-Beckmann

17. An All but Trivial Abortion: Scrutinizing Sex Selection Legislation in India through the Lens of Women’s Autonomy - Kalindi Kokal

18. Rethinking Social Norms: Contraceptive Use and Women’s Right to Choose in Senegal - Chiara Quagliariello

19. Autonomous Aspirations? Re-reading the CEDAW Drafting Process and Examining Muslim Women’s Contributions - Shaheen Sardar Ali and Arjumand Bano Kazmi

20. ‘That’s not our Culture’: Paradoxes of Personal Property in Indigenous Self-Governance - Ian Kalman