Should offence to religions be punishable by law, or does freedom of expression extend even to blasphemy? This book examines this question.

Lorenz Langer is a lecturer at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and a Senior Research Fellow at its Centre for Research on Direct Democracy. He is also the managing editor of the Swiss Review of European and International Law.

Introduction; Part I: 1. The Danish cartoons revisited; 2. Legal responses to religious insult; 3. The current legal framework; 4. Invention of new alternatives? The concept of defamation of religions before and after the cartoons; 5. Defining defamation; Part II: 6. First principles: norms and norm-rationales; 7. Norm-rationales for the regulation of speech; 8. The religious rationale; 9. Religion, its defamation, and international law.