Religious Litigation in Private Law:
An Ethnographic Study of Sincerity and Religious Law in Israeli Courts

The PhD project, conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, investigates how claims of faith and religious law are perceived, managed, and “translated” within civil proceedings in Israel. While most scholarship on religious freedom focuses on the tensions between the individual and the state (public law), this study shifts the lens to private law disputes, such as torts, contracts, and property, where religious identity often emerges as a contested factual and legal category.

The research starts from the hypothesis that when a believer’s lived experience of religion meets the rationalized language of the court, a process of “cultural translation” occurs. This involves identifying the boundaries of religious sincerity and interpreting objective religious law through secular procedural mechanisms.

The study combines an analysis of legal documents with semi-structured interviews with legal practitioners and litigants. By focusing on the Israeli legal system, a multicultural arena where religious and civil laws uniquely intersect, the project aims to contribute to a broader understanding of how modern legal systems adapt to the growing presence of religious pluralism in the civil sphere.