January 22-24, 2009 First ICLARS Congress, Relations Between States and Religions: Patterns in the 21st Century. University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
February 2-3, 2009 Religion in Contemporary Society. State Academy of Social Service Moscow, Russia.
February 13-15, 2009 International Conference on the Constitution Making of Nepal. Budhanilkantha, Kathmandu, Nepal.
March 12-14, 2009 Civil Religion in the United States and Europe: Four Comparative Perspectives. Sponsored by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University and the Brigham Young University Law School Provo, Utah, USA.
May 14-16, 2009 Christianity in the East: Fostering Understanding. Sponsored by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University, the Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding, the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, and the Wheatley Institution. Brigham Young University Provo, Utah, USA.
May 29-30 Religious Autonomy. Co-sponsored by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies and Central European University. Budapest, Hungary.
June 10-14, 2009 2009 International Conference of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), Mainstreaming and Marginalization of Religious Movements. Salt Lake City, Utah.
July 9-10, 2009 Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Vienna, Austria.
August 3-9, 2009 Russia in the 21st Century: Freedom of Conscience, Religion, and the Church. Conference co-sponsored by ICLRS at St. Petersburg Christian University. St. Petersburg, Russia.
August 9-15, 2009 Young Lawyers Training Conference. ICLRS joined with the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, the TIFA Foundation, and the Oslo Coalition for Freedom of Religion or Belief in providing a Training Course for Lawyers on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Jakarta, Indonesia.
August 13-15, 2009 Cultural and Religious Freedom under a Bill of Rights. Conference co-sponsored by ICLRS, University of Adelaide Research Unit for the Study of Society, Law and Religion, and others. Canberra, Australia.
August 31 – September 4, 2009 Hate Speech and Religious Defamation: Part II. International Religious Liberty Association’s 11th Annual Meeting of Experts. Silver Spring, Maryland.
September 28-30, 2009 David M. Kirkham, ICLRS Senior Fellow for Comparative Law and International Policy and Regional Advisor for the European Union, addressed freedom of conscience concerns at the conference Exploring Dimensions in Countering Ideological Support for Terrorism at the Royal Jordanian National Defence College in Amman. Co-sponsored by the Defence College and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, the conference explored efforts by nations to delegitimize the culture of violence that often informs the thinking of ideological extremists. Conference participants included more than 100 academic, governmental, security, and religious leaders from the Middle East, Europe, Eurasia, and the United States. Amman, Jordan
October 4-6, 2009 Sixteenth Annual International Law and Religion Symposium. Connecting Communities of Discourse: How the Judiciary, Academia, Government, and International Institutions Further the Work of Religious Freedom. Provo, Utah.
October 14-15, 2009. Financing of Churches and Religious Societies in the 21st Century. ICLRS Associate Director Elizabeth Sewell presented a paper, “State Funding and Autonomy of Religious Groups,” in the opening session of the international conference, held under the auspices of the Minister of Culture of the Slovak Republic and designed in part to provide comparative experiences on financing of churches to assist Slovak government officials in drafting changes to that country’s system of financing of religious groups. The conference was attended by scholars, religious leaders, and government officials from Europe, Russia, Japan, South America, and the U.S. Bratislava, Slovakia.
October 20-23, 2009 Dialogue between the State and Religious Associations in Contemporary Culture. ICLRS director Cole Durham participated in an international sponsored by the Expert Council under the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, the Administration of Volgograd Region, Volgograd State University, The “Knowledge” Society of Russia (an All-Russia Public Organization), The Volgograd Branch of the Scientific and Educational Cultural Society, and the Association of Researchers of Religion. Professor Durham participated in the plenary session, “Civil-Law Relations of Religious Organizations as Legal Persons.” Volgograd, Russia.
October 28, 2009 ICLRS Director Cole Durham, a member of the OSCE Advisory Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief, moderated a roundtable discussion—Defamation of Religions: The Relationship between freedom of expression and freedom of religion—held in the Delegates’ Dining Room at the United Nations Headquarters. The meeting was co-sponsored by NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief, The BYU International Center for Law and Religion Studies, and The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. New York City.
October 29-30, 2009 ICLRS Advisors for Latin America, Gary B. Doxey and Scott R. Isaacson attended an International Seminar, Right to Freedom of Belief 10 Years after the Enactment of Law No. 19.638 [The ‘Chilean Law of Worship’] on Legal Constitution of Religious Entities. Held at the Santiago Campus of the University of Talca, organized by the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, University of Talca; the Faculty of Law, Catholic University of Valparaiso School of Law; Catholic University of Chile Law School; and the University of the Andes; was sponsored by the Chilean Ministry of Justice National Bureau of Religions Affairs (SEGPES), the Latin American Consortium for Religious Freedom, and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Santiago, Chile.
November 5, 2009 The St. Thomas More Society of Utah presented its First Annual Religion and the Law Program: Reconciling Religious Values with Professionalism and Civility with a panel discussion focused on the blending of spiritual beliefs with professionalism, civility, and professional responsibility. The discussion was moderated by ICLRS Director Cole Durham. Panelists included Alan Bachman, Assistant Utah Attorney General; Michael Lee, partner at Howrey LLP; Father Mike Sciumbato, Parish Priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church; and Sensei Michael Zimmerman, partner at Snell and Wilmer, former Chief Justice, Utah State Supreme Court. Salt Lake City, Utah.