The Rule of Liberal Legalism: The Challenge of the Normativities of Multiple Modernities and Religious Diversity

In Canada profound diversification of multiple moral, political and normative commitments of a multiplicity of communities is unstoppable. Its historically liberalized, modernized and secularized law dominates principles of procedural justice in expressing the monistic liberal theory of rights now entrenched as individual rights within its charter. For religious believers, basing legal and political life on moral behavior acquired through generations of norms is integral to both security of state, and integrity of multiple communities. Tension exists between religious rights, demands of different visions of the good life, secular politics and the slow reshaping of liberal constitutional law in recognizing religious pluralism in the context of freedom of religion guarantees. The greatest challenge in liberal freedom of religion jurisprudence is to balance equality and difference and attain judicial consistency. If conflicting normative systems are not able to combine their respective power and co-exist, the potential of conflicts to escalate is serious.