"We urgently need to build bridges with the Islamic world. I can think of few projects that are more crucial at the present time."  – Author Karen Armstrong, quoted by Dr. Kamal Hossain

At the close of the Seventeenth Annual International Law and Religion Symposium at Brigham Young University on Tuesday afternoon, 5 October 2010, ICLRS Director W. Cole Durham invited several of the conference's distinguished participants – from Columbia, Canada, Ukraine, China, Bangladesh, and India – to join him on ... More

I want to express my deep appreciation for all those who helped make this year’s International Law and Religion Symposium possible. I am very grateful for all of the delegates, who came from so many countries to spend time discussing the importance of religious freedom. I am also grateful for the assistance provided by many friends of the Center and conference attendees, who helped welcome our delegates to Utah. I am immensely grateful as well for countless hours of volunteer service rendered by faculty members from the law school and elsewhere on campus, and the dozens of ... More

Dr. Tahir Mahmood, Honorable Member, Eighteenth Law Commission of India, received the Distinguished Service Award from the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at the opening session of the Seventeenth Annual International Law and Religion Symposium on 3 October 2010 in Provo, Utah. The award is given annually to an outstanding proponent of the cause of freedom of religion or belief worldwide, and the Center is deeply honored that Dr. Mahmood, who has inaugurated, attended, and presided over many international conferences and seminars all over the world ... More

In an award dinner held 7 October 2010 in Washington, D.C., Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut became the first recipient of the International Religious Liberty Award, given by the DC Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society and its affiliated student chapters as part of its Religious Freedom Initiative, developed in connection with the International Center for Law and Religion Studies. The award was given in recognition of Senator Lieberman's outstanding contributions to the promotion and preservation of religious freedom. Among his many other efforts in this ... More

The DC Chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, in association with the International Center for Law and Religion Studies and in connection with the 17th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, has announced the winning papers of the First Annual Religious Freedom Writing Contest. The contest was open to all student members of the Clark Society and was designed to promote quality research and writing on the topic of religious freedom ... More

The Seventeenth Annual International Law and Religion Symposium was held 3-5 October 2010 at Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School in Provo, Utah. Delegates and friends from many parts of the world joined to discuss "Religion in Contemporary Legal Systems," exploring the timely topics "Islam in Contemporary Legal Systems," "Religion, Law, and the Encounter with Secularism," and "The Challenge of Protecting Religious Sensitivities." Two ... More

The Center was pleased to welcome the Honorable Thomas B. Griffith, Judge United States Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia, as a Symposium keynote speaker at the opening session, held Sunday evening, 3 October 2010. Judge Griffith was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals in June 2005. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1978 and from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1985. Judge Griffith was engaged in private practice from 1985 through 1989 in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he was an associate at Robinson, Bradshaw and Hinson, and ... More

This year the Center was honored to welcome 66 outstanding delegates from 36 countries who came to participate in the Symposium in Provo this year. The Center is grateful for each of these delegates and for their contributions to an exceptional conference. Biographical information about the delegates, photographs of Symposium events, and sound and video recordings, as well as written copies of many of the presentations, are or will soon be available on the Annual Symposium section of the ICLRS website. 

Once again this year the Center notes with gratitude the indispensable help of our friends who volunteered to act as hosts for the delegates to the annual International Law and Religion Symposium. The hosts, some of whom have themselves traveled widely to attend such events, served to welcome the delegates and in countless ways to enhance their stay in Provo. We heard many reports this year from delegates expressing particular appreciation ... More

The continuing success of the Annual International Law and Religion Symposium of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University is due largely to the dedication and the competence of The Student Executive Committee. This year the Executive Committee served under the direction of ICLRS Associate Director Elizabeth Sewell, with assistance from Senior Editor Donlu Thayer. Composed of outstanding second- and third-year students from the J. Reuben Clark Law School, the Committee is involved in planning, coordinating, and seeing to the smooth execution ... More