Encyclopedia of Law and Religion

Get access Subject: Law

Edited by: Gerhard Robbers and W. Cole Durham

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In recent years, issues of freedom of religion or belief and state-religion relations have become increasingly important worldwide. The Encyclopedia of Law and Religion, unique in its breadth and global coverage, provides an important foundational resource for study of these issues. The encyclopedia covers the relation between law and religion in its various aspects, including those related to the role of religion in society, the relations between religion and state institutions, freedom of religion, legal aspects of religious traditions, the interaction between law and religion, and other issues at the junction of law, religion, and state.

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Cabo Verde

(3,166 words)

Author(s): Lígia Dias Fonseca
I. Social Facts Cabo Verde is an archipelago of 10 islands located off the west coast of Africa. The country has about 500,000 inhabitants. Although it is ethnically heterogeneous and a country of immigrants, Cabo Verde is religiously and culturally homogeneous. Government statistics from the last quarter of 2012 indicate that 77% of citizens belong to the Roman Catholic Church, while 10% are Protestant, 2% are Muslim, and 11% profess no religion. The second-largest Christian denomination is the Church of the Nazarene. Other Christian …

Cambodia

(2,832 words)

Author(s): M. Brian Sabey
I. Social Facts Cambodia is relatively homogenous, both ethnically and religiously. About 90% of Cambodia’s population of 15.2 million are of the Khmer ethnic group (about 13.7 million). Vietnamese people make up another 5% (about 760,000), the Cham just over 2% (about 319,000), and the Chinese just over 1% (about 150,000). Various other minorities make up the rest (less than 2%), including the indigenous hill tribes known as the Khmer Leou. Over 95% of the population practice Theravada Buddhism, with roughly another 2%, largely Vietnamese, practicing Mahayana Budd…

Cameroon

(5,494 words)

Author(s): Charles Manga Fombad
I. Social Facts Cameroon is a highly complex heterogeneous country with a wide diversity of ethnic groups, languages, cultures, and religions. According to July 2012 estimates, the population is 20,129,878. This is made up of Anglophones (20% of the population) who live in two of Cameroon’s ten regions (formerly under British mandate until 1961) and Francophones (80% of the population and living in the part formerly under French manda…

Canada

(13,753 words)

Author(s): Richard Moon | Heather MacIvor
I. Social Facts The 2011 Canadian census listed dozens of denominations, some with only a handful of adherents. Two-thirds of respondents identified as Christian (at least for census purposes). Of those 22 million Christians, nearly 12.8 million (almost 60%) are Roman Catholic and most of the remainder are Protestants of various types. Roughly two million of the latter belonged to the United Church of Canada, which was founded in 1925 by a merger of the Methodist and Congregationalist Churches with…

Cayman Islands

(1,235 words)

Author(s): David McClean
I. Historical, Legal, and Social Background The Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, became a British possession under the Treaty of Madrid of 1670. They were part of Jamaica until 1962 when Jamaica became independent and the Islands became a separate colony. In the 2010 census, they had a population of 56,700. The people are overwhelmingly Christian, only 5,005 declaring that they had no religion. The main churches are the Church of God (12,173 persons), the Roman Catholic Church (7,564), the Seventh-day Adventist Church (5,054), the …

Central African Republic

(1,712 words)

Author(s): Christoffel Johannes Botha
I. Social Facts According to a 2011 World Bank estimate, the population of the Central African Republic is 4.5 million. Sources differ with regard to the religious beliefs of the population: according to the 2003 census, the population is 51% Protestant, 29% Roman Catholic, and 15% Muslim. Other sources indicate that about 25% of the population is Protestant, another 25% is Roman Catholic, and 15% is Muslim. Estimates of followers of traditional religions range from 10% to 35% of the population. Al…