Jews and other uncertainties: race, faith and English law

Abstract

This paper is intended to contribute to an understanding of how Jews and Judaism have been constructed in English case law. Using an analysis of law as ‘racialised’, the paper observes not just ‘the Jews’ of English law, but also the complex production of ‘Englishness’ (and English law) itself: The specific focus of the paper is upon the law of trusts; in particular, legal judgments adjudicating testamentary dispositions where the Jewish settlor has insisted upon progeny ‘marrying in’ in order to inherit. Jewishness is constructed as both ‘faith’ and ‘race’, and the paper considers these categories and their interaction. While the judges tend to find the wills in question uncertain, it is argued that it is in fact ‘Jews’ and ‘Judaism’ with which the courts are unable to come to terms.