Chapters 1 and 2 deal with the relationship between the Church in Wales and its clergy; the way in which ministerial working arrangements might be interpreted by the secular courts and the civil law consequences which would flow from this interpretation. The study begins with an analysis of the relationship in the general context of employment law. From this examination it emerges that civil law does not adopt a single, universal definition of employment status, but categorizes working agreements differently for different purposes. Consequently, the discussion moves on to look at how the working arrangements of Church in Wales clergy would be construed in relation to vicarious liability in tort, concluding that vicarious liability would almost certainly attach to torts committed in the course of performing ministerial duties. Having established that the church will be vicariously liable, Chapters 3 and 4 go on to consider the scope of the potential liability in connection with trespass and negligence respectively. The common theme which emerges from these chapters, is the difficulty of defining the boundaries of ministerial duties, given the breadth of activities which these duties can encompass, and the underlying Anglican belief that Holy Orders confer not just a set of tasks but a permanent state of being. The conclusion in chapter 5 proposes dealing with this challenge by analysing the clerical role for the purposes of tort in relation to the professional tasks, expertise and undertakings set out in the Clergy Terms of Service. This analysis can be separated from the theological understanding adopted by the church in the context of doctrine, and gives a workable framework for establishing the scope of tortious liability. This approach is then tested and illustrated with a series of case studies.

Since the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1871 there has been negligible academic exploration and scrutiny of its laws. This enterprise seeks to advance scholarship of that law generally. As an initial contribution, the sources of law of the Church of Ireland, until now never the subject of singular study, are identified and investigated. Part One identifies the sources: in the law of the State; in the Church’s primary and secondary sources; and in tertiary sources (quasi-legislation and soft law), including putative sources – custom, the wider Anglican legal economy, and ecumenical input. In Part Two, case studies in each of the arenas – civil, primary and secondary, and tertiary – investigate three concerns. First, the increasing impact of civil law on church law is evaluated as a recent phenomenon. Second, the internal church sources are examined to assesstheir accessibility, a test fundamental to the Rule of Law. Third, the extensive materials of recent decades are scrutinised and demonstrate an ever-growing reliance on informal instruments – quasi-legislation and soft law – governing the life of the Church. A detailed survey of the opinions and knowledge of church members undertaken in 2011 tests and informs the analysis of the sources. Throughout the study, however, the principal reliance is on a formidable array of primary materials: a broad spectrum of State laws; contemporary ecclesiastical legal materials (national and local); a wide range of historical documents, including the original papers of the General Convention 1870, the Minutes of the Legal Committee, one-hundred and forty-four Journals of the General Synod, eight centuries of pre-disestablishment statutes, and one thousand and fifty-four statutes of the General Synod. This identification and investigation of the sources of law of the Church of Ireland highlights weaknesses and makes the case for reform. The conclusion sets out the proposals for reform.

This study proposes a restorative hermeneutic and uses it to assess and evaluate the ‘restorativity’ of the responses of five local Christian communities to crime and wrongdoing. Its central contention is that they can become more ‘restorative’ by critically reflecting on their responses to crime and wrongdoing using the hermeneutic. In chapters I to III, the hermeneutic is established through a mutual critical dialogue between restorative justice and contemporary atonement theology. It has three core principles: ‘radical participation’, ‘righting wrong in a morally serious way’ and ‘reintegration’. These principles are extrapolated from a definition of restorative justice and resonate with the key themes of contemporary atonement theology. In chapters IV and V the understanding, attitude and practical response of these local Christian communities to crime and wrongdoing are categorised and assessed. The findings are then systematically evaluated using the restorative hermeneutic. The final chapter articulates the main conclusion, that to achieve a more restorative response to crime and wrongdoing local Christian communities need to develop a sustained critical dialogue with secularisation theory, an even balance between addressing personal and structural types of crime and wrongdoing, and a critical understanding of the underlying causes of crime and wrongdoing.