Exceptional and Universal? Religious Freedom in American International Law

This essay explores the paradoxical claims to exceptionalism and universalism that lie at the heart of the American tradition of religious liberty. In considering how and with what consequences religious freedom has become embedded in the international legal order with the rise of American power, the essay considers three themes linking together this history: first, the ambiguity of religious liberty conceived as internal to and outside of history; second, American efforts forcibly to transform the constitutional orders of foreign states over the last century to include religious freedom; and third, attempts to promote religious freedom through international conventions and extraterritorial domestic legislation