Appearing on this page (including in the left navigation links) are a number of website, publications, training, law reform, and other projects in which the Center is involved, in addition to the many international conferences organized and presentations made worldwide annually by Center personnel. Notably, the Center is involved in developing ongoing courses for promoting the study of law and religion in Asia, South Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013 the Center launched a series of regional conferences, beginning with Ghana in January, and followed by Latvia in April, Moscow in May, Oxford in June, China in July, Vietnam in September, and Morocco in November. In 2014 the Religious Freedom Annual Review, focused on the United States, was launched. Also in 2014, the Center with a number of partners launched a series of Interfaith Summits, held in relationship to the annual G20 Summits. The Center is grateful for the ongoing financial and scholarly support that makes these and other important projects possible.
Begun in 2005, www.strasbourgconsortium.org is dedicated to the discussion and exchange of ideas regarding cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights, particularly cases involving religion and freedom of belief issues. In addition to providing a resource to scholars and other leaders, this site allows for a continuing dialogue on these topics. The International Center for Law and Religion Studies maintains the website, including its comprehensive table of cases tracking the relevant juriprudence of the Court.
The International Center for Law and Religion Studies and Wolters Kluwer Legal Education are pleased to announce the second edition of the groundbreaking casebook Law and Religion: National, International, and Comparative Perspectives, co-authored by ICLRS Director Brett G. Scharffs and Founding Director W. Cole Durham, Jr., with contributions from others at the Center, especially former student now attorney Michael Worley and Center Publications Director, Donlu Thayer. Originally developed for use in English-speaking law-school courses worldwide, the first edition of this groundbreaking work has now been translated into Chinese, Vietnamese, and Turkish, for use in training sessions for lawyers and academics in China, Vietnam, and Turkey, and translation of the second edition into Burmese, Indonesian, and Russian is now underway, with plans for Spanish, Hebrew, and... more
The treatise Religious Organizations and the Law (Second Edition 2017) is a 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 expanded to 4000 pages in four volumes. The greatly expanded 2nd edition — 19 sections increasing to 37 — was completed in 2016 and appeared in early 2017. The work has proceeded under the supervision of Robert T. Smith and W. Cole Durham, Jr., Managing Director and Founding Director of the International Center for... more
The General Reporters, Javier Martínez-Torrón of the Law Faculty of Complutense University in Madrid and Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr., Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University, along with Donlu Thayer, project editor, are pleased to announce the publication in final form (July 2015) of the National Reports prepared on this topic "Religion and the Secular State" for The 18th Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law, held in Washington, DC in July 2010.
The Congress is the once-every-four-years meeting of the experts of the International Academy of Comparative Law. The 18th Congress was the first of this nearly 100-year-old Academy to be held in the United States. The Reports prepared on the... more
The publishers have announced the 2016 release of the Brill Encyclopedia of Law and Religion. General Editors of this five-volume work are Gerhard Robbers, Professor Emeritus at the University of Trier and formerly Minister of Justice and for Consumer Protection of Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany), and W. Cole Durham, Jr,. Susa Young Gates University Professor of Law at Brigham Young University and Founding Director of BYU Law School's International Center for Law and Religion Studies. Associate Editor is Donlu Thayer, ICLRS Director of Publications.
The editors acknowledge with deep gratitude the contribution of Ashley Isaacson Woolley, whose editorial expertise, applied to essentially every article, contributed immeasurably and essentially to the completion of the work. A number of people associated with the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, in addition to Durham, Thayer, Woolley, and Robbers (who is a member... more
The Oxford Journal of Law and Religion was introduced to the Oxford Journals collection in early 2012. The first issue appeared in print on 1 April 2012, followed by the second issue on 1 October. These issues, along with advance access to the third issue, are available free of charge on the Journal's website. Subsequent issues are available by subscription.
The new journal was developed "in response to the recent proliferation of research and writing on the interaction of law and religion cutting across many disciplines." The launch of the Journal was marked by Oxford Journal of Law and Religion Colloquium, hosted by the Religion and International Relations Programme of the Centre for Christianity and Culture and held 19 April 2012... more
Since the publication of the internationally significant work Facilitating Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Deskbook, many appeals for its translation have been made. Consequently, the Center has undertaken the task of translating the deskbook into Indonesian, Russian, Arabic, and Mandarin Chinese. The Indonesian Translation has now been published, and the Russian Translation was launched in events in Moscow and Kyiv in early August 2010. The deskbook anthology is designed as a single-volume resource for all who are concerned with facilitating improved global compliance with international standards in freedom of religion or belief (FORB).
The Deskbook's varied and diverse topics are addressed by more than fifty global experts in the field, who provide historical and philosophical background on religious human rights, applicable international norms, and the international... more
The right to freedom of religion is increasingly vulnerable worldwide. Recent studies find that 77 percent of the world’s population live under high or very high restrictions on religious freedom, and restrictions in many nations, from Africa to Asia, from the United Kingdom to the United States, are rising rapidly. Helping people understand and effectively respond to the challenges of protecting this fragile right is the work of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies of Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School.
As part of this work, the Center was pleased to sponsorm during the years 2011, 2012, and 2013, the Religious Freedom Discussion Series. The lectures, followed by a brief question & answer period, were held at BYU... more