Sacred Law And The Secular State

Jon Eisenberg and Munes Tomeh in conversation

How do we define justice? In a secular nation, where do religion and law intersect? Is there tension between empathy and reason in legal thought? Philosophers have long pondered such questions, and they are raised every day in courts of law. As part of our Renovatio Conversations series, we asked two lawyers and thinkers — Jon Eisenberg and Munes Tomeh — to discuss these issues in the unique context of both Constitutional and Islamic law.

Jon Eisenberg has practiced law for nearly four decades, argued a dozen cases in the California Supreme Court, and dealt with civil rights cases involving same-sex marriage, the right to die, affirmative action, religious liberty, and detention at Guantánamo Bay.

Munes Tomeh is an attorney specializing in intellectual property law, and has also studied classical texts in Arabic and Islamic law with scholars in Mauritania. He has also taught Islamic legal theory and American Constitutional law at Zaytuna College.