The International Center for Law and Religion Studies of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University is pleased to announce that the Distinguished Service Award for 2012 was presented to Professor Silvio Ferrari at the Nineteenth Annual International Law and Religion Symposium on the evening of 8 October 2012 in Provo, Utah. The award is given annually to outstanding proponents of the cause of freedom of religion or belief worldwide, and the Center is most pleased to recognize the longtime and extensive contributions of Professor Ferrari to this cause. 

Silvio Ferrari is Professor of Canon Law at the University of Milan and Professor of Church-State Relations at the University of Leuven in Belgium. He has been visiting professor in Paris (École Pratique des Hautes Études) and Berkeley (University of California). He advises many international organizations, including the European Union and the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He has founded, together with other professors, the European Consortium for Church and State Research. Professor Ferrari is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Institut européen en sciences des religions (EPHE, Paris) and of the Board of Experts of the International Religious Liberty Association (Silver Spring, Maryland).

Professor Ferrari received a Degree in Law from Catholic University of Milan and did postgraduate work at the British Library, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Columbia University of New York. His main fields of interest are Law and Religion issues in West Europe; Comparative Law of Religions (in particular Jewish Law, Canon Law and Islamic Law); and Relations between Israel and the Vatican. Honorary Life President of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS), he also serves as co-Editor-in-Chief of the newly launched Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. 

This is not Professor Ferrari’s first keynote address at BYU Law School. In April 2009 he set the agenda for the group of international experts joining in roundtable discussion of Civil Religion in the United States and Europe. The International Center for Law and Religion Studies is honored and delighted to welcome Professor Ferrari to Brigham Young University once again.