Conference in Krakow 4-6 November 2014: Religion in the Context of Globalization

The conference “Religion in the Context of Globalization: Legal Aspects of the Functioning of Religious Organizations” was held in Krakow, Poland,  4-6 November 2014. The event was sponsored by the Department of History of Religions, Institute of Religious Studies, Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland); the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah, USA); and the Coordinating Counsel for CIS and Baltic Countries on Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Religious Studies (Kyiv, Ukraine—Moscow, Russia).

The conference opened Tuesday, November 4, at the Aula Collegium Novum of the Jagiellonian University, where attendees were welcomed by such speakers as Professor Henryk Hoffmann, Head of the Department of History of Religions, Jagiellonian University; Professor Jaroslaw Górniak, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University; Professor Cole Durham, Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, Brigham Young University; Professor Ekaterina Elbakian, Academy of Labor and Social Relations; and Professor Liudmyla Fylypovych, Head of the Department of Religion and Religious Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Twelve panel discussions were held on Wednesday, covering such topics as “Religion and European Legal Values of Democracy, the Rule of Law, and Human Rights”; “Legal Regulation of the Activities of Religious Organizations in Modern Society”; “The Place of Religion in Education: Problems and Perspectives on Solutions in Various Countries”; and “Interreligious Dialogue: Conditions and Possibilities for Its Realization”; among others. More than sixty presentations were shared during the discussions, by presenters from Armenia, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Great Britain, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, and the United States.