Meu novo paper, ainda preparando, foi aceito para ser apresentado em Cardiff.LARSNSpeakers and abstracts Amel Alghrani Manchester University amin.al-astewani@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk The Essence of Islam: A response to theShariah debate in the West.The debate on Shariah law within a Western Context hasdeveloped rapidly since its inceptionin the late 1900s. It was particularly reinvigoratedby the Archbishop of Canterburys lecture at the Royal Courts of Justice in 2008, and is now ahighly contentious topic in the public forum. The contentiousness of the debate is related to thesimilarly rapid development of Shariah courts in the West, established and administered by Western Muslimminority communities. This conference paper is a response to the contribution of Westernlegal scholarship to this debate. It argues that Western legal Scholars have approached theShariah with a secular lens, bypassing the religious framework within which the Shariahfunctions. This approach has led to inaccurate and misconceived conclusions in the Shariah debate. Thispaper will present an exposition of the Islamic religious framework from which the Shariah originatesbased on classical Islamic sources, in the hope of resolving this issue. Sylvie Bacquet Westminster University S.Bacquet01@westminster.ac.uk An enquiry into the role of religioussymbols in the making of religious identitiesThis paper presents the findingsfrom an empirical study on the relationship between, the state, individuals andreligious symbols. It is submitted that given the important part that religioussymbols play in the life of individuals, they contribute to the making ofindividuals and groups identities. As such, any attempt by states to interferewith religious symbols must be balanced against individuals freedoms. In thiscontext, the research sought to elucidate the nature of the relationshipbetween individuals and their religious symbols. While the empirical study wascarried out in England, the findings form the basis of a criticism of thestates approaches in both England and France. The qualitative analysis focusedon the meaning and significance of religious symbols and their place in thelives of individuals. The study entailed questioning the role and significanceof religion in the making of individual and collective identity. Five mainfindings emerged from the data, namely that the way symbols are perceived isbased on individuals personal experience with religion and culture; thatreligiosity is ascribed by birth through ancestors history but evolves and crystallises via familyupbringing, education and spiritualjourney of an individual; that thereasons why people wear religious symbols are therefore highly intimate; thatones relationship with symbols is ultimately dependent on ones relationshipwith religion and that given the special nature of ones relationship withsymbols, State interference with any religious symbol (either throughParliament or the courts) should be kept to the minimum necessary to protectother citizens. The study recommended that States should acknowledge thatsymbols play a major role in the making of religious identities by furtherengaging religious minorities in the drafting of laws and policies thatdirectly affect them. James Barry Dalhousie University jpbarry@dal.ca Liberty, Equality, and Sorority:Balancing Freedom of Religion and Gender Equality in Comparative ContextLegal positivists suggest thatproportionality as a tool of constitutional rights adjudication represents amain vector driving a convergence of common law and civil law into a globalizedjus commune. As a hybrid formula ofinductive binding case law and deductive general principles, they advise,proportionality is converging substantive