A Comparison of the Treatment of Blasphemy in English Law and other Legal Systems - Dissertation Example

Blasphemy started to be taken most seriously when Moses was given the Law of God and any mortal who dared to irreverently mention the name of God was required to be put to death. The harsh Old Testament Laws of Moses are described in the Jewish Oral Traditions, the Talmud. The coming of Christ and Christianity could be considered to be a rebellion from discrimination and oppression and although the New Testament Laws did recognize the Law of God, the Church endeavored to soften the harshness as Judaism and Christianity moved apart.

Evolution of the Law of Christ was expected to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Early English Law reflected the harsh position of the Church of Rome, but English Monarchy preferred to have a distinctly English approach to theology. It was the Church of England and the Sovereign’s prerogative to judge that shaped lawmaking about religion in England. Blasphemy has moved from being a harsh crime of strict liability, based on Old Testament thinking, into an offense that has been struck down by the European Convention on Human Rights.

This dissertation attempts to examine the treatment of blasphemy in English Law and other Legal systems of the world. It is important to consider what exactly is meant by blasphemy and how the treatment of blasphemy has changed as English law has evolved over the centuries. A brief outline of what has been presented in the dissertation is also included in this chapter.The issue of blasphemy is an ancient one and this issue has also been dealt with in English law over many centuries. Blasphemy has been defined in terms of the defamation of the sacred name of God (Wikipedia, 2006, “Blasphemy”).