Emory International Law Review Volume 32 Issue 2 2018 Law, Religion, and Immigration: Building Bridges with Express Lanes Gideon Sapir Mark Goldfeder Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/eilr Recommended Citation Gideon Sapir & Mark Goldfeder, Law, Religion, and Immigration: Building Bridges with Express Lanes, 32 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 201 (2018). Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/eilr/vol32/iss2/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Emory Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Emory International Law Review by an authorized editor of Emory Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. SAPIR_GOLDFEDER GALLEYPROOFS2 2/1/2018 2:59 PM LAW, RELIGION, AND IMMIGRATION: BUILDING BRIDGES WITH EXPRESS LANES Gideon Sapir∗ Mark Goldfeder∗∗ ABSTRACT This Article asks whether it can ever be moral or legal to use certain criteria, including nationality and/or religion, in formulating preferential immigration policies. In order to answer the question, it presents an in-depth look at the controversial “right of return,” focusing in particular on the example of the Israeli Law of Return. It contains a detailed history of the law and its development; a defense of the right of return in general; the principle and contextual arguments in favor of an amendment to or abrogation of Israel’s law; and a theoretical and practical defense of the law, with some ideas for potential modification. ∗ Gideon Sapir is Professor of Law at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, Senior Fellow at Center for the Study of Law & Religion, Emory University, and Senior Fellow at Kohelet Policy Forum, Israel.