This paper explains recent High Court decisions on the constitutional validity of a funding agreement under the Commonwealth's National School Chaplaincy Program. Introduction In July 2012 the NSW Parliamentary Research Service published an e-brief on the High Court’s decision in the first School Chaplains case – Williams v Commonwealth of Australia. That case concerned the...

How free from a religious or sacred dimension is our political system? The West has prided itself for years on having shaped strong, secular and democratic institutions of government, devoid of a sacred element, but Philosopher Simon Critchley argues that political or civil theology is essential to the democratic process. He and Phillip engage in...