Friday 15 February 2019

Workshop report: The regulation of financial abuse of religious and spiritual capital, Oxford Brookes February 2019.


Religion is powerful, with the power of religion being a type of religious capital. Such power can be abused. Religious fraud is a significant social problem, with one estimate of Christian fraud alone amounting to $34bn per year globally. It also raises profound theoretical questions around the appropriate relationship between the state, religious organisations and the community; and in particular the difficult question of the authority of the religiously pluralist state to determine facts in a religious context. The regulation of religious power that results in financial gain to a religious leader or organisation needs to thread a difficult course through under-regulation (with the exposure of those whom regulation seeks to protect, and damage to the interests which underpin an area of regulation) and over-regulation (with the risk of excessive restriction of the religious interests of individuals and religious organizations, and damage to the interests which religious rights seek to advance).

On the 14th of February 2019 Oxford Brookes School of Law hosted a workshop exploring the regulation of financial abuse of religious and spiritual capital.

Professor Pauline Ridge (Professor of Law, ANU; Visiting Fellow, Oxford Brookes University) focused on the application of general rules around undue influence in the particular context of religious financing. Her wide ranging discussion of equitable doctrines in Australia and England illuminated the complexities of civil law regulation of what, on their face, are religious donations. While an emphasis on the idea of a fiduciary duty may help resolve these issues in relation to large gifts, problems remain when many small gifts cumulatively become a non-trivial amount. Pauline will continue to develop her ideas in her monograph on religious financing law.



Craig Allen (University research student, Oxford Brookes University) focused on the application of the Fraud Act 2006 s.2 to the same context. His analysis of the general provisions of criminal law in this area, in the absence of a robust body of case law dealing with the religious context, showed problems in relation to both actus reus and mens rea.   Craig will continue to develop his ideas in his doctoral thesis.




A wide ranging discussion from the legal and religious studies academics, and practitioners, present added a more explicit gender dimension to the discussion; consideration of the changing understandings of religious orders about financial issues; the possibilities of shifting analysis into a choronologically extended perspective; and the complexities of assessing harm – and public benefit – in religious contexts.


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