Oxford Conference: International Protection of Religious Freedom, Emerging Issues

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies of the J. Reuben Clark Law School and the Brigham Young University London Centre sponsored the conference “International Protection of Religious Freedom: Emerging Issues”, held at Harris Manchester College, Oxford University, 18-19 June 2013.

This conference was a central event of the inaugural Oxford Journal of Law and Religion Summer Academy. Among those attending were ICLRS Director W. Cole Durham, Jr., President of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS, Milan) and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion; ICLRS Associate Director and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs of the J. Reuben Clark Law School Brett G. Scharffs, who is a member of the Advisory Board of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion; and Donlu Thayer, ICLRS Senior Editor and a Case Note Editor of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. Members of the ICLRS International Advisory Council, under the leadership of IAC Chair David Christensen and his wife, Mary, and including longtime ICLRS supporters David and Linda Nearon, were also in attendance.

International experts participating in the conference included:

• Heiner Bieldefeldt, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief;
• Christopher McCrudden, Queen’s University, Belfast and Lincoln College, Oxford, barrister-at-law (Grey’s Inn); 
• Kent Greenawalt, Columbia University Law School; 
• John Milbank, Professor in Religion, Politics, and Ethics, University of Nottingham;
• Rev’d Prof. Oliver O’Donovan, Professor Emeritus, University of Edinburgh;
• Joan L. O’Donovan, Honorary Fellow, School of Divinity, New College, University of Edinburgh; 
• Rev’d Dr. Robert Ombres OP, Raymond of Penyafort Fellow in Canon Law, Blackfriars Hall, Oxford;
• Rabbi Dr. Naftali Rothenberg, Senior Fellow, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute;
• Rev. Canon Gary Wilton, Archbishop of Canterbury’s Representative to the European Union; Canon, Holy Trinity Church Brussels; Programme Director, Wilton Park;
• Mark Janis, William F. Starr Professor of Law, University of Connecticut; Visiting Fellow, University of Oxford;
• Farrah Ahmed, Associate Director (India), Asian Law Centre, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne;
• Joseph E. David, Sub-faculty Associate Member, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford;
• Peter Edge, Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom;
• Mathias Rohe, Founding Director, Erlangen Center for Islam and the Law in Europe;
• Peter Petkoff, Law Lecturer, Brunel Law School; Director, Law, Religion, and International Relations Programme, Centre for Christianity and Culture, Regent’s Park College, Oxford; Managing Editor, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion;
• Daniel Seidemann, Attorney at Law, Terrestrial Jerusalem;
• Renata Uitz, Professor of Law, Central European University;
• Marco Ventura, Faculty of Law, University of Siena; Faculty of Canon Law, Katholieke Universtiy of Leuven; 
• Michael Weiner, UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights;
• Robin Fretwell Wilson, Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University School of Law
• James Faulconer, Academic Director, Brigham Young University London Centre
• James R. Rasband, Dean, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
• David M. Kirkham, Senior Fellow for Comparative Law and International Policy, International Center for Law and Religion Studies

Co-organizers of the conference include the Oxford Society for Law and Religion; Becket Institute, Oxford; Centre for Christianity and Culture; Regent’s Park College, Oxford; Brunel Law and Religion Research Group; Balliol Interdisciplinary Institute; Bristol Centre for Law and Religion; and FORB Focus.