From September 19-24, 2016, the first-of-its-kind regional certificate training program on religion and the rule of law was held in Lao Cai city in the Northwest Highlands region of Vietnam. Although Lao Cai province has a population of only a little over 600,000, it includes 24 of the 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, and a wide array of religious and linguistic communities.
The program was modeled on successful certificate training programs over the past five years held twice in Hanoi, once in Ho Chi Minh City, and once in Danang. This was the first time the program was designed for a primarily regional rather than national audience. More than 70 students participated in the program, including religious leaders, educators, and government and party officials with responsibilities regarding…
Brigham Young University Law School professors Cole Durham and Brett Scharffs, Director and Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, participated in the fourth Certificate Training Program on Religion and the Rule of Law in Vietnam, held 14-23 September 2015 in Hanoi. Co-sponsored by the Center, the Institute for Global Engagement, and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities Hanoi, these annual training programs bring together experts in religion and good governance from Asia, Europe, and the United States with government officials, policy advisors, faith leaders, researchers, professors, and students — this year almost 70 of them — to strengthen a growing network of experts on law and religion in Vietnam and throughout Southeast…
Press Release from the Institute for Global Engagement
From 11-12 May 2015, the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE), in partnership with Brigham Young University (BYU) and Vietnam National University’s University of Social Sciences & Humanities (USSH), conducted a “Religion and the Rule of Law Comparative Studies: Vietnam and the United States” conference in Washington, DC. The conference examined religious freedom, good governance, and policymaking in the U.S. and Vietnam.
Conference participants focused on four cross-cutting themes: 1) Registration and legal status of religious groups; 2) Rights of religious foreign entities and individuals; 3) New religions; and, 4) Religious property. Experts from both countries brought various academic, religious, legislative, and international…
Report by Bryant Hinckley
In July 2014 the International Center for Law and Religion Studies was pleased to co-sponsor the third annual Certificate Training Program on Religion and the Rule of Law in Vietnam. This year’s program was held in the city of Da Nang, Vietnam. Da Nang is the center of commerce and education in central Vietnam. The program featured the top Vietnamese academics dealing with law and religion in their country along with many of the world’s leading academics on the topic. Judge Clifford Wallace of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Thomas Griffith D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals also taught at the event. The Institute for Global Engagement, University…
The International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS, Brigham Young University), in partnership with the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) and the University of Social Science and Humanities (USSH at Vietnam National University Hanoi) hosted the second ten-day certificate training program on “Religion and the Rule of Law” in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, from 16-25 September 2013. This program is designed to systematically build an intellectual infrastructure to help guide the current and emerging generation of Vietnamese scholars, government officials, policy advisors, and religious leaders, as they work to improve policy on religious freedom in their own contexts. The process is intended to provide a network for change, so that these Vietnamese leaders can make the case from within…
From 26 November to 5 December 2012, the Institute for Global Engagement, Brigham Young University, and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Hanoi co-conducted the first-ever certificate training program on Religion and the Rule of Law in Vietnam.
The purpose of the ten-day program was to train an emerging generation of scholars, government officials, judges, and religious leaders on international and comparative approaches to religion and the rule of law. The training—using both comparative and interdisciplinary training methods—helped to build an emerging intellectual foundation as they develop a new legal infrastructure that contributes to religious freedom and the well-being of society.
The program trained over 80 Vietnamese government officials, researchers…