Encyclopedia of Law and Religion

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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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Saint Barthélemy

(10 words)

Author(s): not-specified
See France. Not Specified Bibliography  

Saint Helena (Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha)

(1,092 words)

Author(s): David McClean
I. Historical, Legal, and Social Background English authority over Saint Helena dates from 1657 when a chartered company, the East India Company, was permitted to colonize and govern the island. A British garrison was on the island during the imprisonment of Napoleon I, but the company thereafter resumed sole responsibility. In 1834, under the Government of India Act 1833 of the United Kingdom, the island became a British crown colony. A British naval garrison was established on Ascension Island, 1,300 km northwest of Saint Helena, in 1815 (again as a result of t…

Saint Kitts and Nevis

(2,374 words)

Author(s): Thomas Jones
I. Social Facts Saint Kitts and Nevis is composed of two islands situated in the Leeward Islands. Nevis, the smaller of the two, is situated to the southeast of Saint Kitts. The capital city is Basseterre. The country has a population of approximately 51,100 inhabitants. Saint Kitts is divided into nine administrative divisions, namely Christ Church Nichola Town, Saint Anne Sandy Point, Saint George Basseterre, Saint John Capesterre, Saint Mary Cayon, Saint Paul Capisterre, Saint Thomas Middle Isla…

Saint Lucia

(2,969 words)

Author(s): Mark Hill QC | Thomas Jones
I. Social Facts Saint Lucia has a land mass of approximately 617 sq. km and a total population of around 175,000 inhabitants. The island has very strong European links, which account for its present-day religious demographics, explored below. Saint Lucia is an island country situated to the northeast of Saint Vincent and northwest of Barbados. English is the official language of Saint Lucia and the capital city is Castries, which is home to some 60,000 inhabitants. The island is divided into variou…

Saint-Martin

(9 words)

Author(s): not-specified
See France. Not Specified Bibliography  

Saint Pierre and Miquelon

(12 words)

Author(s): not-specified
See France. Not Specified Bibliography  

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

(2,838 words)

Author(s): Thomas Jones
I. Social Facts Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, also simply referred to as “Saint Vincent”, consists of the principal island of Saint Vincent and the northern stretch of the Grenadines islands. Saint Lucia is north of Saint Vincent and Barbados is to the east. The total population of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is 120,000 inhabitants. The total area is approximately 390 square kilometers. The capital city and the administrative center is Kingstown. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is divided…

Samoa

(2,058 words)

Author(s): Travis J. Hyer
I. Social Facts  According to the 2011 census conducted by the Samoan government, the population of Samoa exceeded 187,000 people. With regard to religious persuasion, only those over the age of five were included in the data. Of those, nearly 161,000 individuals, or about 32%, belonged to the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa, 19% were Roman Catholic, 15% belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), 13% were Methodist, 8% belonged to Assemblies of God, and 4% were …

San Marino

(2,956 words)

Author(s): Guido Bellatti Ceccoli
I. Social Facts The population of the Republic of San Marino is 33,564 (Feb. 2014). About 18% of the population are foreigners: 5,828, including 4,619 Italians and 1,209 of other nationalities. About 80% of the foreigners are Italians. The foreign population is from 73 different countries. In San Marino there is no census data on membership of religious groups. However, considering the available information, we can calculate that Roman Catholics are approximately 96.7%, Orthodox Christians 2.2%, Je…

São Tomé and Príncipe

(1,481 words)

Author(s): Bryant T. Hinckley
I. Social Facts São Tomé and Príncipe, a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, lying off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa, has an estimated population of 185,000. The Roman Catholic Church estimates that 85% of the population is Roman Catholic, 12% Protestant, and about 2% Muslim. Indigenous beliefs and practices are also maintained among the population. II. Historical Background The islands of São Tomé and Príncipe were not discovered by Europeans until the end of the 15th century. The commonly accepted story is that the is…

Saudi Arabia

(7,137 words)

Author(s): T. Jeremy Gunn
Laws and practices pertaining to religion in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia vary significantly from those of all other states in the world. Because the role of state Islam is so encompassing—extending well beyond written laws and judicial decisions—it is important to emphasize Saudi Arabia’s history in order to better understand the basic elements of law and religion in the Kingdom as they operate in the 21st century. Because Saudi Arabia offers virtually no protections for the individual freedom o…

Senegal

(4,716 words)

Author(s): Tanner James Bean
I. Social Facts Senegal, with its 13.6 million inhabitants, is a predominantly Muslim country. In fact, 94%, or 12.9 million, of Senegalese are Sunni Muslims. The Muslim community includes several Sufi orders that ascribe to different esoteric and mystical methods of religious practices beyond the five pillars of the Islamic faith. The largest order is the Tijaniyya order, followed by the Mourides, the Qadiriyya, and the Layène orders. These orders evolved from distinct historical and social bases and exert a substantial influence on Senegalese culture. Christianity accounts for…

Serbia

(5,418 words)

Author(s): Sima Avramović
I. Social Facts According to the 2011 census Serbia (excluding Kosovo and Metohia) has about 7.18 million inhabitants, which is about 4% less than in the 2002 census (7.49 million). A large majority of the population declared themselves to be Orthodox Christians (84.98%), but there is no official state religion. The second-largest confession is Roman Catholicism (5.48%), followed by Islam (3.20%). In the religious mosaic of Serbia, Protestants from different churches comprise 1.08%, while the Jewis…

Seychelles, Republic of

(2,304 words)

Author(s): Mathilda Twomey
I. Social Facts The Republic of Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands in the West Indian Ocean, about 1,600 kilometers east of Mombasa, Kenya. Its population is a well-integrated mix of European, African, and Asian peoples. They are the descendants of the early French settlers and African slaves brought to Seychelles in the 18th century, of Indian indentured laborers who were brought in to work on the plantations after the abolition of slavery in 1835, of Chinese who arrived as traders in the latter half of the 19th century, and of the British to whom the islands were ceded in 1815. The r…