At the beginning of 2011, we at the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University mark the opening of the second decade of the Center's formal existence. This is a time of both reflection and recommitment, of both gratitude and hope. As we ponder what we have attempted to accomplish during the past decade in service to the people and the causes we hold dear, we remember and cherish associations with our friends in many lands who are likewise engaged in promoting what is to us a most fundamental human freedom: the freedom to think and to express those thoughts, the freedom to believe and to manifest beliefs, alone or in peaceful association with others, according to the dictates of ... more

With sadness the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University notes the passing on 30 November 2010 of our dear friend and longtime supporter Bill Pope, a member, as is his beloved wife, Margaret, of the Center's International Advisory Council. Renowned educator, scientist, innovator, and businessman, Bill devotedly served his country, his church, his community, and ... more

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies is pleased to announce the 2011 Student Research Fellows and locations of their assignments for next summer. The ICLRS Student Research Fellows Program invites students from the J. Reuben Clark Law School to participate in an international externship followed by guided research projects. The five-week externships take place in legal offices in a dozen countries, where ... more

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies regularly produces leading scholarship in the field of law and religion studies, both in the United States and internationally. The Center has been involved in a number of notable publication projects in 2010. This year the deskbook Facilitating Freedom of Religious Belief, a cooperative project with the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief, has been published in Indonesian and Russian, with ... more

Center personnel organized, presented at, or otherwise participated in approximately 35 conferences during 2010, including the following:

6-10 January  "The Freedom of Religion and Belief Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights: Legal, Moral, Political and Religious Perspectives," a panel at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Law Schools, held in New Orleans, Louisiana

29-31 January  "Religion, Law and Governance in Southeast Asia: Comparative Legal Perspectives," co-sponsored by the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS, Malaysia), the Faculty of Law of the University of Malaysia (Malaysia), the Institute of ... more

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University is pleased to announce the theme for the 18th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, "Religious Freedom in a Pluralistic Age: Trends, Challenges, and Practices." The event will take place 2-4 October 2011 at the J. Reuben Clark Law School on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo ... more

The Center announces the Student Executive Committee for the 18th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, to be held 2-4 October 2011 in Provo, Utah. Committee members Rebecca Erekson, Heath Becker, Chase Gunnell, Nate White, Kimberly Tolman, Kandis Bryant, and Jordan Teuscher are returning, after ably serving on the 2010 Committee. They will be assisted this year by Cecily Couture, Justin Caplin, Cynthia Hale, Tyler Albrechtsen, Jens Rasmussen, Brandon Bastian, Szonja Ludvig, and Rachel Snow. The ... more

Audio and video recordings and as well as written presentations from the Seventeenth Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, "Religion in Contemporary Legal Systems," are now available, in several languages ... more

A collage of photos from the 2010 Symposium is now available here. Thanks go to BYU Law School photographer, Matt Imbler, who took most of these photos, and also to journalist and Symposium host Page Johnson for her many contributions. Chair of the Hosting Committee, Linda Nearon, also contributed lovely photos to the mix. Each of the photos in the collage may be enlarged by clicking it.

Each year, by Presidential Proclamation, the United States marks National Religious Freedom Day on January 16, the anniversary of the adoption in 1786 by the Virginia General Assembly of Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. This landmark document became the basis for the American notion of separation of church and state, and it led to freedom of religion for all Americans as protected in the religion clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The day is commemorated each year by the First Freedom Center in Richmond, Virginia, with a First ... more

In his annual "state of the world" address, delivered 10 January 2011 to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, Pope Benedict highlighted the growing assault on religious freedoms around the world: "The particular influence of a given religion in a nation," the Pope said, "ought never to mean that citizens of another religion can be subject to discrimination in social life or, even worse, that violence against them can be tolerated." The Pope praised a recent effort by European Union leaders to defend the rights of Christians in the Middle East and welcomed a move last October by ... more

President Alan Garcia has ratified an historic law aimed at preventing religious discrimination in Peru. "This law confirms and states that we are a society of believers, a society that has immense faith," Garcia said, as reported 22 December 2010 in the Peruvian Times. "The Catholic church, for its history, has a lot of weight in the citizenry, but other religions and churches have space and have been increasing recruitment and the formation of their members." The bill ... more

For more news about freedom of conscience, religion, or belief worldwide, please consult the News pages of the websites of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, the Strasbourg Consortium, and the Religion and Law Consortium.