Explores the multifaceted debate on the interconnection between conscientious objections, religious liberty, and the equality of women and sexual minorities.

Introduction: the new generation of conscience objections in legal, political and cultural context Susanna Mancini and Michel Rosenfeld; Part I. Conscientious Objection in a Constitutional Democracy: Theoretical Perspectives: 1. Conscience and its claims: a philosophical history of conscientious objection Julie Saada and Mark Antaki; 2. The conscience wars in historical and philosophical perspective: the clash between religious absolutes and democratic pluralism Michel Rosenfeld; 3. Conscientious objections Bernard Schlink; 4. Egalitarian justice and religious exemptions Cécile Laborde; 5. Is there a right to conscientious objection? Lorenzo Zucca; 6. Affect and the theo-political economy of the right to freedom of 'thought, conscience and religion' Marinos Diamantides; Part II. Conscientious Objection or Culture Wars? The Changing Discourse of Religious Liberty Claims: 7. Conscience wars in transnational perspective: religious liberty, third-party harm, and pluralism Reva Siegel and Douglas NeJaime; 8. Transatlantic conversations: the emergence of society-protective anti-abortion arguments in the United States, Europe and Russia Susanna Mancini and Kristina Stoeckl; 9. The geopolitics of transnational law and religion: wars of conscience and the framing effects of law as a social institution Pasquale Annicchino; Part III. Objecting to Anti-Discrimination Laws in the Name of Mainstream Religious Convictions: Striking a Balance between Freedom and Equality: 10. Objections to antidiscrimination in the name of conscience or religion: a conflicting rights approach Eva Brems; 11. The role of the European Court of Human Rights in adjudicating religious exception claims Helen Keller and Corina Heri; 12. When do religious accommodations burden others? Nelson Tebbe, Micah Schwartzman and Richard Schragger; Part IV. Conscience, Accommodation and its Harms: Children, Women and Sexual Minorities: 13. The missing children in elite legal scholarship Marci A. Hamilton; 14. Religious refusals and reproductive rights: claims of conscience as discrimination and shaming Louise Melling; 15. Seeking to square the circle: a sustainable conscientious objection in reproductive healthcare Emmanuelle Bribosia and Isabelle Rorive; 16. Marriage registrars, same sex relationships, and religious discrimination in the European Court of Human Rights Christopher McCrudden; Part V. Concluding Perspectives on the Conscience Wars: 17. Mission still impossible Stanley Fish; 18. The politics of religion: democracy and the conscience wars Robert Post.