Hastings International and Comparative Law Review Volume 12 Article 5 Number 1 Fall 1988 1-1-1988 Religious Law and Religious Freedom in Saudi Arabia and Israel: A Comparative Study Richard N. Merenbach Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/ hastings_international_comparative_law_review Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Richard N. Merenbach, Religious Law and Religious Freedom in Saudi Arabia and Israel: A Comparative Study, 12 Hastings Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 235 (1988). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_international_comparative_law_review/vol12/iss1/5 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings International and Comparative Law Review by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Religious Law and Religious Freedom in Saudi Arabia and Israel: A Comparative Study By RiCHARD N. MERENBACH Member of the Class of 1989 I. INTRODUCTION Ancient religious law continues to influence the laws of many na- tions, especially Israel and Saudi Arabia where the laws are often explic- itly taken from religious legal systems.1 Israel and Saudi Arabia continue to use ancient laws and precepts that are of dubious value in the twentieth century.2 Aside from the purely personal issue of the religious justification for the use of religious law, use of religious law creates many problems for the governments of Saudi Arabia and Israel. Further, the use of religious law infringes on the basic civil liberties of freedom "of" and "from" religion: Are the people of Saudi Arabia and Israel being denied the inalienable right of freedom from religion?3 As a result of Saudi Arabia and Israel's use of religious law, the two states experience many of the same difficulties and some of the same ben- efits.