2nd ICLARS Conference, Religion and Constitution – Santiago, 8-10 September 2011

The Second Conference of the International Consortium for Law and Religions Studies (ICLARS), was held 8-10 September 2011 at Pontifica Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile. ICLARS is an international network of scholars and experts of law and religion. It began in 2007, with the aim of providing a place where information, data, and opinions could be exchanged among members and made available to the broader scientific community. To this end, ICLARS organizes conferences and publishes a newsletter. The First ICLARS Conference, “Law and Religion in the 21st Century: Relations between States and Religious Communities,” was held in Milan in 2009; its proceedings have been published by Ashgate.

The theme of this second conference was Religion and Constitution, and speakers from South and North America, Europe, Africa, Israel, China, and Nepal addressed the topic, in panels discussing wide-ranging consitutional issues, touching upon such issuees as education, conscience, minorities, and equal treatment, including considerations from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim perspectives and including a consideration of “Religion and Equal Treatment in China and Nepal”.

Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr., Susa Young Gates University Professor of Law and Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS) of the Brigham Young University Law School (Provo, Utah, USA), delivered the Conference keynote address, “Religion and the World’s Constitutions”. Professor Durham, as one of the Editors-in-Chief of the newly announced Oxford Journal of Law and Religion,also participated on the panel “Law and Religion Journals: Starting a Dialogue.” As a concluding matter of the Conference, Professor Durham was installed as ICLARS President, for a term of four years, following Professor Silvio Ferrari, University of Milan, Founding President of ICLARS. Ana María Celis Brunet, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, was nominated as ICLARS Vice President 

Also participating in the conference and panelists or chairs were (*indicates member of the ICLARS Steering Committee; ^ a member of the ICLARS secretariat):

  • Brett G. Scharffs, ICLRS Associate Director, whose paper was co-authored by 
  • Liu Peng of the China Academy of Social Sciences of Beijing
  • Kanak Bikram Thapa of Tribhuvan University, Nepal
  • Norberto Padilla, Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina
  • Johan D. van der Vyver, Emory University (USA) from South Africa; 
  • Jorge Precht, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago
  • Julian Rivers, University of Bristol (UK)
  • Cesare Mirabelli, Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”
  • Asher Maoz*, Tel-Aviv University
  • Ofrit Liviatan, Harvard University
  • Sophie van Bijsterveld, Tilburg University
  • Jay Wexler, Boston University
  • Alain Garay,Université Paul Cézanne, Aix-Marseille III
  • Pieter Coertzen*, Universiteit of Stellenbosch
  • Rafael Palomino Lozano, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
  • Pamela Slotte, University of Helsink
  • Sebastián Zárate, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago
  • Zachary R. Calo, Valparaiso University
  • Santiago Cañamares, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
  • Pauline Capdelvielle, Université Paul Cézanne, Aix-Marseille III
  • Agnes Christian Chaves Faria, Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro
  • Helena van Coller, Rodhes University, Grahamstown
  • Nassima Ferchiche, Université Paul Cézanne, Aix-Marseille III
  • Carlos R. Santos, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima
  • Emma Svensson, Uppsala University
  • Javier Martinez-Torrón, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
  • Juan Navarro Floria*, Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina, Buenos Aires
  • Kofi Quashigah, University of Ghana, Accra
  • Richard J. Moon, University of Windsor, Canada
  • Paulo Tort, Director of Religious Affairs,Home Office, México
  • Carmen Asiaín, Universidad de Montevideo
  • Manuel A. Nuñez, Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta
  • Maria Elena Pimstein^, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago
  • Iván C. Ibán*, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
  • Gerhard Robbers*, Universität Trier
  • Gianluca Parolin, American University in Cairo
  • Natan Lerner, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya

The following people represented Academic Journals:

  • Mark Hill, Ecclesiastical Law Journal
  • Sophie van Bijsterveld, Religion, Law and Public Policy
  • Blandine Chélini Pont, Annuaire Droit et Religions
  • Cole W. Durham*, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion
  • Marie Failinger, Journal of Law and Religion
  • Silvio Ferrari*, Quaderni di diritto e politica ecclesiastica
  • Isidoro Martín, Derecho y Religión
  • Rafael Palomino, Anuario de derecho eclesiástico del Estado
  • Robert Smith^, BYU Law Review
  • Jeroen Temperman, Religion & Human Rights

Co-sponsors of the Conference included the International Center for Law and Reigion Studies, Centro de Libertad Religiosa Derecho UC, Cambridge University Press, Santander, CCU, Perez de Arce Abogados, Pucobre, AIS, Banco Security, ONAR (Ministerío Secretarià General de la Presidencia).