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Lucas, Brian; Robinson, Anne --- "Religion as a Head of Charity" [2010] ELECD 678; in McGregor-Lowndes, Myles; O’Halloran, Kerry (eds), "Modernising Charity Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Modernising Charity Law

Editor(s): McGregor-Lowndes, Myles; O’Halloran, Kerry

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849802505

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Religion as a Head of Charity

Author(s): Lucas, Brian; Robinson, Anne

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

8. Religion as a head of charity
Brian Lucas and Anne Robinson

This chapter proposes to deal with four questions: (1) why was the
advancement of religion included as one of the heads of charity? (2) can
religion be conceptualised as part of charity other than by tradition? (3)
why should it continue to be included as one of the heads of charity? A
subtext of these questions is: is it time to reform the religious head and
strip back its privileges? So we might propose that the fourth question is:
(4) should religious institutions be given special tax treatment?


ISSUES IN DEFINING RELIGION AS CHARITY

Definition of terms, not least legal terms, is an entirely purposive exercise.
In other words, words are never defined for their own sake; they are attrib-
uted meaning for a specific reason and for specific contexts. In Australian
common law, in much the same way as in the United Kingdom, the defini-
tion of the term `charity' has come from three main applications.1

1. There are those cases where it was necessary for the court to determine
the existence of a charitable trust because if they were not charitable
they would be void, offending the rule against perpetuities; related to
these were other cases where it was necessary to determine the charita-
ble status of institutions to which gifts were given.
2. The term `charity' and `charitable' have been used in statutes (largely
in the context of taxation and rate relief) without definition, ...


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