The Center produces leading scholarship in the field of law and religion studies, both in the United States and internationally. For more information on these and other publications of interest, please see the links below and to the left.
The current issue of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion is now available online and in print.
ARTICLES
- David H. McIlroy : Locke and Rawls on Religious Toleration and Public Reason
- V. Bradley Lewis : Religious Freedom, the Good of Religion and the Common Good: The Challenges of Pluralism, Privilege and the Contraceptive Services Mandate
- Alice Donald : Advancing Debate about Religion or Belief, Equality and Human Rights: Grounds for Optimism?
In an important contribution to the 10th Anniversary Issue of The Review of Faith & International Affairs, Professor Brett G. Scharffs explores "International Law and the Defamation of Religion Conundrum." Professor Scharffs is Francis R. Kirkham Professor of Law and Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies of the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University.
Since the late 1990s, notes Professor Scharffs, there has been a concerted effort by many Muslim-majority countries and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to incorporate a ban on "defamation of religion" into international law. In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council adopted, with the support of the OIC, Resolution 16/18, which shifted away from the idea of defamation to focus... more
Islam and Political-Cultural Europe
W. Cole Durham Jr., David M. Kirkham, Tore Lindholm, eds.
Ashgate 2012
Islam and Political-Cultural Europe identifies the sometimes confusing and often contentious new challenges that arise in daily life and institutions as Islam settles deeper into Europe. Critiquing past and recent assimilation efforts in the fields of education, finance, and security, the contributors offer prospective solutions to diverse contemporary problems. Exploring the interactions... more
The Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. 1 Num. 2
W. Cole Durham, Jr., Malcolm Evans, Silvio Ferrari, Julian Rivers & Gerhard Robbers, eds.
Oxford University Press, 1 October 2012
Contents
EDITORIAL
C Durham, M Evans, S Ferrari, P Petkoff, J Rivers & G Robbers
ARTICLES
Jonathan Chaplin: Law, Religion and... more
The Future of Religious Freedom: Global Challenges, edited by Allen D. Hertzke, Presidential Professor of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma, is now available from Oxford University Press. The book's first chapter, "The Status of and Threats to International Law on Freedom of Religion or Belief," was authored by Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr., Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS), President of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS), and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion; assisted by Matthew K. Richards, member of the First Amendment & Religious Organizations section and shareholder with the law firm Kirton McConkie; and Donlu D. Thayer, ICLRS Managing Editor and a Case Note Editor of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion.... 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.
The Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. 1, Num. 1
W. Cole Durham, Jr., Malcolm Evans, Silvio Ferrari, Julian Rivers & Gerhard Robbers, eds.
Oxford University Press, 1 April 2012
Contents
EDITORIAL
C Durham, M Evans, S Ferrari, P Petkoff, J Rivers & G Robbers
ARTICLES
Malcolm Evans: Advancing Freedom of... more
The Routledge International Handbook of Religious Education
Derek Davis and Elena Miroshnikova, eds.
(Foreword by W. Cole Durham, Jr.; chapter by Elizabeth A. Clark)
Routledge 2012
How and what to teach about religion is controversial in every country. The Routledge International Handbook of Religious Education is the first book to comprehensively address the range of ways that major countries around the world teach religion in public and private educational... more
The first issue of The Oxford Journal of Law and Religion appeared in print on 1 April 2012. The new journal was "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 published issues and advance access to upcoming issues is available freely online during 2012, at the Journal's website.
Writes Rhodri Jackson, OUP Publisher, Law: "The journal aims to redefine the interdependence of law, humanities, and social sciences within the widening parameters of the study of law and religion, whilst seeking to make the distinctive... more
Islam, Europe and Emerging Legal Issues
Edited by W. Cole Durham Jr., Rik Torfs, David M. Kirkham, and Christine Scott
Ashgate Publishers 2012
Islam, Europe and Emerging Legal Issues 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... 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
Muslim Law in India and Abroad
Tahir Mahmood and Saif Mahmood
Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd. 2012
Muslims are the second largest religious community of India and therefore their personal law constitutes an important chapter of the Nation's legal system.
This book offers a comprehensive study of the entire gamut of Muslim law as applicable in India. Extensive critiques of each of... more
Freedom of Religion under Bills of Rights
Edited by Paul Babie and Neville Rochow
Foreword by The Hon Sir Anthony Mason AC, KBE, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia
University of Adelaide Press 2012
Chapter 1 Paul Babie and Neville Rochow, Protecting Religious Freedom under Bills of Rights: Australia as Microcosm
Chapter 2 Ngaire Naffine, How Religion Constrains... more
Brett G. Scharffs, Francis R. Kirkham Professor of Law and Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, has published the article "Four Views of the Citadel: The Consequential Distinction between Secularity and Secularism," in the journal Religion and Human Rights 6 (2011) 109-126.
In this article Professor Scharffs suggests... more
As the concluding speaker at the symposium "Belonging, Families, and Family Law," held 28 January 2011 at the BYU Law School, Professor Brett G. Scharffs delivered a paper "Echoes from the Past: What We Can Learn about Unity, Belonging, and Respecting Differences from the Flag Salute Cases." The symposium proceedings have been now published as Volume 25, No. 2 of the Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law.
In summarizing his paper, Professor Scharffs reiterated recent observations... more
The proceedings of the conference "Civil Religion in the United States and Europe: Four Comparative Perspectives" have been published as Volume 41, Number 4 (2010) of The George Washington International Law Review. The conference, organized by Professor Frederick Mark Gedicks, Guy Anderson Chair & Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, with the assistance of W. Cole Durham, Jr. and the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS) at Brigham Young University... more
Center Director W. Cole Durham, Jr., and David M. Kirkham, Senior Fellow and Regional Advisor for Europe, authored the section "États-Unis" (United States) in the Dictionnaire du droit des religions (Dictionary of Law and Religion), edited by Francis Messner and released by Editions du CNRS, Paris, France in early 2011. Written by leading French and foreign religion and law experts - theologians, jurists, sociologists - the articles presented here provide an overview as well as comparative perspectives and understanding of key debates and current issues of legal regulation of religious phenomena.
The Proceedings of the inaugural conference of the St. Johns' University School of Law's Center for Law and Religion, Laïcité in Comparative Perspective, have been published in the St. John’s Journal of Catholic Legal Studies. ICLRS Associate Director Professor Brett Scharffs participated in the panel discussion, which was held at St. John’s Paris Campus on June 11, 2010. The conference brought together scholars from the... more
Professor Elizabeth A. Clark, ICLRS Associate Director, contributed the chapter, "Religious Liberty and Religious Minorities in the United States," in the 2010 edition of the Oxford Handbook of Church and State in the United States, edited by Derek H. Davis and published by Oxford University Press... more
L-R: Cole Durham, Tore Lindholm, Elizabeth Sewell.
ICLRS Director Cole Durham and Associate Director Elizabeth Sewell, along with ICLRS Academic Advisory Board Member Tore Lindholm of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo, participated in the launch of the Russian translation of Facilitating Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Deskbook during events in Moscow and Kyiv on 3 and 5 August 2010. As main speakers at the Moscow event, held at the Slavic Legal Center, Professors Durham, Sewell, and Lindholm were joined in the presentation by discussion moderator Roman Lunkin, director of the Institute of Religion and Law and Senior Scientist, Institute of... more
The International Center for Law and Religion Studies announces the publication, in a limited run for authors and reviewers, of the volume Religion and the Secular State / La Religion et l’État laïque: Interim Reports, prepared for and issued upon the occasion of The XVIIIth International Congress of Comparative Law, held 25 - 31 July 2010 in Washington, D.C. The 827-page volume represents the work of the General Reporters for the Congress topic Religion and the Secular State, Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr. Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University and Professor Javier Martínez-Torrón of the Law Faculty... more
The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 8 (2):2-14 (June 2010)
ICLRS Director W. Cole Durham, Jr., has published the article "Legal Status of Religious Organizations: A Comparative Overview" in The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 8(2): 3-14. The article... more
The Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. XXVI, No. 1 (2010-2011)
The proceedings of a panel on the law and religion jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights at this year's annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools organized and chaired by ICLRS Associate Director Brett Scharffs has just been published in the Journal of Law and Religion. The Symposium issue includes an introduction by Professor Scharffs and articles by Professor... more
ICLRS Associate Director Elizabeth A. Sewell contributed the chapter "Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. Amos, 483 U.S. 327 (1987): Addressing Tensions between the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses," in Leslie C. Griffin, ed., Law and Religion: Cases in Context (Aspen Press, 2010). Designed to be used... more
Ashgate publishers have announced Law and Religion in the 21st Century: Relations between States and Religious Communities, edited by Silvio Ferrari, Professor of Canon Law, University of Milan, and President, International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS), and Rinaldo Cristofori, Research... more
The International Center for Law and Religion Studies and Aspen Publishers / Wolters Kluwer Law & Business are pleased to announce the release of the casebook Law and Religion: National, International, and Comparative Perspectives, co-authored by ICLRS Director W. Cole Durham, Jr. and Associate Director Brett G. Scharffs, with contributions from many others at the Center, especially Coordinating Editor Suzanne Sitthichai Disparte. Developed for use in English-speaking law-school courses, the work is dynamic combination of... more
The Center has sponsored the Russian translation and publication of two important reference works in the field of law and religion: Facilitating Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Deskbook and Gerhard Robbers' State and Church in the European Union. The translation of the Deskbook was jointly sponsored by the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion and Belief. Both works will provide significant resources... 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... more
The International Center for Law and Religion Studies has sponsored the Russian translation and publication of Gerhard Robbers' State and Church in the European Union. The work includes chapters on each of the church-state systems of the E.U. countries and is a tremendous resource for study of law and religion in Europe. The Russian translation was published in December 2009 by the Institute of Europe under the editorship of Anatoly Krasikov. Launch events, which were attended by scholars, journalists, Orthodox and other religious leaders, and government officials, were... more