Group Rights in Liberalism's Religion - Cécile Laborde: Liberalism's Religion. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017. Pp. 344.)

Chapter 5 of Laborde’s incredibly rich analysis engages with the question of religious group rights. Laborde argues that the politically liberal state should grant (some) religious associations legal exemptions and protections, on the basis of their freedom-of-association-related interests: first, their coherence interest in living “by their own standards, purposes and commitments,” and second, their competence interest in being allowed to “interpret their own standards, purposes and commitments” (175). Accordingly, religious associations may be exempt from gender discrimination laws, if compliance would prevent them from acting as their religious doctrine requires them to (189). I offer two critical comments on Laborde’s account. My first concerns her treatment of ontological issues as irrelevant to group rights. The second concerns the scope of rights she is willing to grant religious associations.