Civil Law and Religion in the Supreme Court of Canada: What Should We Get Out of Bruker V. Marcovitz?
(2008) 43 S.C.L.R. (2d) 381
32 Pages Posted: 21 Aug 2009
Date Written: August, 12 2009
Abstract
As 2007 came to a close, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its judgment in Bruker v. Marcovitz. In doing so, the Court -- in both its majority and dissenting decisions -- found itself grappling with a dynamic mix of religious practices and state norms, family law and constitutional framework, private obligations and public policy. The actual story and its core issue of the overlap between contractual liability and religious law of divorce are not new. But the judgment invites renewed reflection on the entanglement, necessary yet challenging, between obligations articulated in state law on the one hand and religious law on the other.
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