International Center for Law and Religion Studies

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies maintains this website to share news of its activites.

The Center also maintains the website of the Religion and Law Consortium, a research forum for legal developments on international religion or belief topics, which includes news of international interest.

In addition, we maintain the site of the Strasbourg Consortium, which is devoted to issues of freedom of conscience or religion at the European Court of Human Rights, including a comprehensive case table of all significant cases to come before the Court in its 50-year history and a summary of news from and about the European Community.

We thank you for your interest, and invite your participation.

16 May 2012. "The Catholic Roots of Religious Freedom," Robert Wilken, Emeritus, University of Virginia, sponsored by Lumen Christi Institute, held at Social Sciences 122, 1126 East 59th Street, University of Chicago, 7:00 p.m.

23-25 May 2012. Understanding Religious Pluralism: Perspectives from Religious Studies and Theology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC.  [conference registration]

24 May 2012. "Rising Threats to American Religious Freedom," sponsored by the Ethics and Public Policy Center's American Religious Freedom Program, Washington, DC.

25-27 May 2012. World Congress of Families VI... more

Professor Elizabeth A. Clark, Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, was among the academic experts participating in the 2012 Conference of Religiously Affiliated Law Schools, hosted by the Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Central Islip, New York, 2-4 May 2012. The conference addressed the topic "The Place of Religion in the Law School, the University and the Practice of Law."  Professor Clark was part of the panel "The Place of Law and Religion Institutes in the Law School and the University," along with Marie A. Failinger - Professor of Law and Editor, Journal of Law and Religion, Hamline Law School (Moderator);  Robert F. Cochran Jr. - Director, The... more

Professor David M. Kirkham addressed the topic "Human Rights, the Constitution, and Religious Liberty" as the second lecture in the International Center for Law and Religion Studies' 2012 Religious Freedom Discussion Series, held 2 May 2012 at Brigham Young University. The lecture was heard by students and visitors present, as well as those listening in via live Webinar. The presentation is available in the following formats:

PowerPoint Presentation        Recording (Windows Media File)

Professor Kirkham is Senior Fellow for Comparative Law and International Policy at the Center, and Regional Advisor for the European Union and Council of Europe. David Kirkham came to the Center in July 2007 from the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, where he served as Associate Dean and Professor of International Politics and Democratic Studies in the College of International and Security Studies.... more

The Washington, D.C. Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society and the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University announce the Third Annual Religious Freedom Student Writing Competition. Deadline for submissions is 1 August 2012.

The contest seeks scholarly papers relating to the topic of religious freedom, broadly or narrowly construed, consisting of 9,000 - 13,000 words, including footnotes.

The purpose of the competition is "to promote legal and academic studies in the field of religious liberty by law students and students pursuing related graduate studies." Students... more

On 21 April 2012 the London Chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society sponsored an event hosted by the law firm Latham & Watkins, Bishopsgate, London. The event featured a discussion of the topic "A secular state preserves religious freedom" by Dr. Ronan McCrea, a barrister lecturing at University College London, and Professor Brett G. Scharffs, Francis R. Kirkham Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, USA, and Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies.  

Dr. McCrea is author of Religion and the Public Order of the European Union (OUP 2011), which was Shortlisted for The Peter Birks Prizes for Outstanding Legal Scholarship 2011, and Professor Scharffs is... more

The first of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion Seminars was held 20 April 2012 in the Old Common Room of Balliol College, Oxford, UK. The event was co-sponsored by the Oxford Society for Law and Religion; FORBFocus; the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS, Milan); Brunel Law and Religion Research Group; Centre for the Study of Religion in Public Life, Kellogg College, Oxford; Religion, Law and International Relations Program, Regents Park College, Oxford; the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS), Brigham Young University, United States; and the Strasbourg Consortium.

The event was held in conjunction with the launch of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion... more

The Oxford Journal of Law and Religion Colloquium, held on the occasion of the publication of the first issue of the Journal, convened on Thursday, 19 April 2012, at Regent's Park College, Oxford, UK, hosted by the Religion Law and International Relations Programme of the Centre for Christianity and Culture. 

Session I of the Colloquium featured a Welcome and Introduction, "Harmony in Dissonance — Directions of the Law and Religion Studies," by Peter Petkoff, Director of Religion, Law and International Relations Programme, Regent's Park College, and Managing Editor of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. Journal Editors-in-Chief... more

The theme for the 19th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, to be held at the J. Reuben Clark Law School on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah from 7-9 October 2012, has been announced. Invited international experts in law and religious issues — including government and church leaders as will as leading academics —  will discuss "Religion, Democracy, and Civil Society,"  addressing such topics as 

• Religious Organizations, Civil Society, and Pluralism
• The Role of Religion in Democratic Transformation
• Religion in Public and Private

Watch for further information as the Symposium approaches.

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS) was privileged to host visitors from Africa who were in the United States as part of the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program, U.S. Foreign Policy and Human Rights, a Regional Project for Africa. The program was arranged by Meridian International Center. ICLRS leaders Cole Durham, Robert Smith, Elizabeth Clark, and David Kirkham hosted the distinguished guests at the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University on 2 April 2011.

Visitors were from nine African countries, as well as from France... more

Professor Brett G. Scharffs, Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS), traveled to Vietnam in March 2012 to meet with University leaders at Vietnam National University – Hanoi. While there he to delivered a lecture on "Religion and the Rule of Law: Comparative and International Law Perspectives for Contemporary Vietnam" and discuss with the Vietnamese academics possibilities for significant joint academic programs in the future. 

Professor Scharffs, ICLRS Regional Advisor for Asia, is co-author, with his colleague W. Cole Durham, Jr. of the casebook, Law and Religion: National, International, and Comparative Perspectives (Aspen/Wolters Kluwer 2010), second edition now in preparation.

At the BYU Law Schools Barrister's Ball Awards Ceremony on 30 March 2012, the International Center for Law and Religion Studies was pleased to make the following awards to graduating students who have made extraordinary contributions to work of the Center.

Outstanding Service Award
Jordan Teuscher
Rebecca Hansen
M. Brandon Bastian

Three-Year Law and Religion Symposium Service Award
Tyler Albrechtsen
Heath Becker
Kimberly Tolman
Nate White

January 2012 saw the publication of the long-awaited first volume of the Islam in Europe Series, edited by ICLRS Director Cole Durham and Senior Fellow and Regional Advisor for the European Union David Kirkham, along with Belgian Senator and Center Academic Advisory Board Member Rik Torfs and former Center Director of Publications Christine Scott, under the sponsorship of the Sorenson Legacy Foundation.

The volume, Islam, Europe, and Emerging Legal Issues was published by Ashgate, London. It brings together vital analysis of the challenges that Europe poses for an expanding Islam and that Islam poses for Europe, within their ever-evolving religious, legal, and social environments. This book gathers some of the best thinking on Islam and the law affecting current and contested issues that can no longer be ignored, particularly as they have found their way before the European Court of Human Rights. Contributors include leading... more

Oxford University Press had announced the first issue of the The Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, with a formal launch in Oxford on 19 April 2012. The new journal "is introduced to the Oxford Journals collection in response to the recent proliferation of research and writing on the interaction of law and religion cutting across many disciplines." Online access to the first issue is available here. 

From the Press Release: "The journal aims to redefine the interdependence of law, humanities, and social sciences within the widening parameters of the study of law and... more

Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr., Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS) and president of the International Consortium on Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS) opened the second Religious Freedom Discussion Series on 7 March 2012 with a lecture entitled "Hosanna-Tabor and its European Counterparts: Comparative Reflections." 

A video recording of the lecture in wmv format is available for download here. The PowerPoint Presentation accompanying the lecture may be downloaded here.  

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies had the very great pleasure of welcoming Dr. Elena Mikhailovna Miroshnikova to Brigham Young University for one month during Winter Semester 2012. Dr. Miroshnikova is Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Culture Studies, Ethics, Religious Studies, and Theology at Tula State Pedagogical Leo Tolstoy University (Russia), where she teaches Freedom of Conscience, Religion and Society, Religion and Politics, New Religious Movements, and Russian History of State-Church Relations.

Dr. Miroshnikova is a Member of the Board of the Russian Association of Scholars on Religious Studies, Member of the International Consortium of Law and Religion Studies (Milan), and Expert of Human Rights Without Frontiers (Belgium). Her fields of interest... more

The 2011-2012 edition treatise Religious Organizations and the Law is now available. This comprehensive work originated by William W. Bassett, Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco, has been updated annually since 1997 and in 2012 has expanded to 4000 pages in four volumes. The work is co-authored by Professors W. Cole Durham, Jr., and Robert T. Smith, and employs the research assistance of students and staff at the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University, as well as an outstanding interdenominational advisory board of legal... more

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS) is pleased to announce the second Religious Freedom Discussion Series, which will feature bi-monthly lectures throughout the year by globally recognized religious freedom and comparative law experts who direct the work of the Center.

The Lectures will be given in Room 472 of the J. Reuben Clark Law Building on the campus of Brigham Young University and will be simulcast by limited-space Webinar. Those who wish to participate in the Webinar must register in advance, and instructions for doing this will appear on the ICLRS website one week prior to each event.

Recordings of the lectures, and in many cases PowerPoint presentations and texts, will be available on this website following the presentations.

All interested parties are invited to attend the lectures, register for the Webinars, and view the recordings on... more

Papers by Dr. David M. Kirkham, Senior Fellow for Comparative Law and International Policy at the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, and Professor Brett G. Scharffs, Center Associate Director, appear as chapters in Freedom of Religion under Bills of Rights, published January 2012 by the University of Adelaide Press.

Dr. Kirkham's chapter is titled "Political Culture and Freedom of Conscience: A Case Study of Austria." Professor Scharffs contributed "Protecting Religious Freedom: Two Counterintuitive Dialectics in US Free Exercise Jurisprudence." The papers were originally delivered as part of a Center co-sponsored conference "Cultural and Religious Freedom under a Bill of Rights," held at the old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia in August 2009.  Center Director Cole Durham also participated in the conference. 

 The book is available for purchase or for free download here. 

Professor Elizabeth A. Clark, Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies and the Center's regional advisor for Central and Eastern Europe, presented the final lecture in the first International Religious Freedom Discussion Series on Thursday, 1 December 2011 in Room 472 of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. 

Professor Clark's lecture, "Recent Legislative Trends Affecting Religious Freedom in Eastern Europe and Central Asia," addressed continuing and even increasing restrictions on religious freedom, including increased registration requirements, requirement of "religious expertise" by state bodies, and limitations on proselytizing, distribution of religious materials, and foreign-led organizations. Professor Clark discussed... more

The 16 January 2012 Newsletter of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies has now been sent to friends and subscribers. You may subscribe or unsubscribe to the Newsletter, or submit questions or comments about the Newsletter, by sending a message to newsletter@iclrs.org. All Center newsletters may be viewed here.

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies of the J. Reuben Clark Law School is pleased to announce the selection of the Student Research Fellows for 2012. These fifteen outstanding law students will participate in the ICLRS Student Research Fellows Program, involving a five-week international externship followed by a guided individual research project at the Law School.

The international externships take place at the offices legal counsels in twelve foreign... more

For Immediate Release 11 January 2012
The International Center for Law and Religion Studies

The United States Supreme Court has delivered its decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the most significant U.S. religious freedom case in twenty years. In a unanimous opinion, the Court held that employment discrimination suits against leaders and teachers of religious organizations impermissibly interfere with the internal governance of religious organizations and thus violate the U.S. Constitution's Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses. "The interest of society in the enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is... more

[The] unanimous Supreme Court decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, upholding a small Lutheran school’s right to control its employment of "commissioned ministers" on its teaching staff, is very good news indeed for religious freedom. Congratulations are due to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, to Professor Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia (who teamed up with Becket in representing the school), and to writers of supportive amicus briefs.*    —Matthew J. Franck, ... more

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University wishes to acknowledge the following international experts on the topic of freedom of religion or belief whose work we consulted in preparing our amicus brief in the case Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Church and School v. EEOC... more

Senator Joseph Lieberman addressed the topic "Faith and the Public Square," related to his recently published book, The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath, at Brigham Young University's Marriott Center on Tuesday, 25 October 2011. The lecture will be rebroadcast on KBYU-TV at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on November 20. Click here to read the BYU News Report of the event.

From a Washington Times review of the book by Michael Medved: "The purpose of 'the gift of rest' in Mr. Lieberman’s view isn’t 'to recharge our batteries so we can work harder but to recharge our souls so we can live better.' Citing a... more

Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr., Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS) at Brigham Young University, was installed as President of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS) at the Second ICLARS Conference, held 8-10 September 2011 in Santiago, Chile. Professor Durham succeeds Professor Silvio Ferrari of Università degli Studi di Milano. Professor Robert Smith, ICLRS Managing Director, serves as member of the ICLARS... more

Jordan Pendergrass

Kevin J. "Seamus" Hasson, founder of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, has successfully defended religious liberty in the courts of law, the court of public opinion, and the academy. His accomplishments, both in the United States and abroad, have benefitted the religious rights of people from "A to Z," from Anglicans to Zoroastrians. In recognition of his work and great character, Mr. Hasson received the International Religious Liberty Award on 6 October 2011 in Washington, DC. As Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University has observed, "no persons will be more deserving of celebration than the truly great lawyers of the Becket Fund and its... more

The Eighteenth Annual International Law and Religion came to a close in a plenary session on Tuesday afternoon, October 4, 2011. Center Director Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr. invited seven Symposium delegates and one audience member to join him in summarizing the event for all assembled in the Law School's Moot Court Room and listening in via live Internet stream. Joining Professor Durham during this hour were

• David Rodearmel – U.S. Foreign Services Officer, currently assigned to Stuttgart, Germany, former Symposium delegate, this year an audience member;
• Mariatu Bangura – Senior Executive, Gender and Children's Affairs, Ministry of Social Welfare, Sierra Leone;
• Justice Anthony Penrose Randerson – Justice, Court of Appeals, New Zealand;
• Eugenio Cedeño Areché – Deputy, National Congress, Chamber of Deputies, and President, Human Rights Commission, Dominican Republic;
• Brian Grim – Director of Cross-National Data and Senior Researcher in Religion and World Affairs, Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life;
• Vicente Lines – Attorney at Law, Costa Rica;
• The Reverend Thomas Philips – Member of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Taoism;
• Jorge Horacio Gentile – Professor of Constitutional Law and Director, Universidad Católica Argentina; Argentine Council for Religious Liberty (CALIR).