May 2010 – Cardiff, Wales

The Law and Religion Scholars Network (LARSN), an initiative led by the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University, Wales, held its 2010 Conference and Meeting at the Cardiff Law School on 11 May 2010. The Conference was attended by more than fifty delegates, and more than twenty academic papers were presented, covering such diverse topics as religious symbols in schools, the employment status of ministers of religion, the Anglican Ordinariate, the new Public Sector Equality Duty and Religious Order charities. The concluding event of the day was a meeting to assess LARSN progress and plan for the future of the Network. Among the past successes noted was the development of the Case Database featuring law and religion judgments delivered by domestic courts, the European Court of Justice, and the European Court of Human Rights. Plans for the next year include the second LARSN doctoral students’ conference which will take place in December at Oxford Brookes and a further LARSN conference in Cardiff in May 2011.  

The Law and Religion Scholars Network “is designed to bring together for the first time academics who are interested in all areas of law and religion: national and international law affecting religion and religious law.” The network arose out of the gradual development” over the last twenty years of law and religion as an area of academic study. According to the LARSN website, “Controversies surrounding the wearing of Islamic dress, Catholic adoption agencies, and the status of Sharia underscore the growing topicality and importance of law and religion.”