This introduction explores the intersection between law and religion, focusing on the transition from reason to faith in the framing and interpretation of religious norms. It examines how legal reasoning has historically entered into religious domains, influencing theological thought and institutional practices. The paper discusses the mutual influence of legal and religious discourses, showing how juridical structures have been used to articulate, regulate, and sometimes legitimize religious beliefs and practices. Through this lens, the authors analyze the transformation of religious systems under the impact of legal rationality and investigate how faith-based traditions respond to or resist this juridical incursion.

Revue de l’histoire des religions, edition 4

Professor Laurent Mayali is the Lloyd M. Robbins Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He directs both the Comparative Legal Studies Program and the Robbins Religious and Civil Law Collection. His areas of expertise include international and comparative law, with a particular focus on legal history and customary law.(UC Berkeley Law, UC Berkeley Law)

Professor Mayali completed his legal education at the University of Montpellier in France, earning his Licence en Droit (1976), Maîtrise en Droit (1977), Diplôme d'Études Approfondies (1978), and Docteur d'État en Droit (1985). He also holds an Habilitation in Legal History from the same institution. Before joining Berkeley, he served as a tenured research scholar at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt and at France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. He initially joined UC Berkeley’s Department of Rhetoric in 1985 and became a permanent member of the law faculty in 1988. In 1997, he was elected to a chair in Roman Christianity and the sources of modern law at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne) in Paris. (UC Berkeley Law, UC Berkeley Law)

Professor Mayali has been a visiting professor at numerous universities and has lectured extensively across Europe, Africa, and Asia. He has authored and co-authored several publications, including Droit savant et coutumes, L’exclusion des filles dotées (XIIe–XVe siècles), Of Strangers Foreigners, and Identité et droit de l’autre. His scholarly work encompasses medieval jurisprudence, customary law, and comparative legal systems.(UC Berkeley Law)

Additionally, Professor Mayali serves as the faculty chair of Berkeley Law’s Visiting Scholars Program, a role he finds particularly meaningful given his own experience as a visiting scholar at the school in 1980. (UC Berkeley Law)