Center AAB Member Rik Torfs Elected to Belgian Senate – 13 June 2010
Professor Rik Torfs, member of the Academic Advisory Board of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, was on 13 June 2010 elected to the Belgian Senate, obtaining 143,603 votes, which is the ninth position of the 40 members elected directly. Professor was considered a “white rabbit” in the election, meaning a candidate chosen for fame outside of politics. “Torfs is well known as a witty expert in church matters. He became a household name when he served as the one-man jury for three years in the popular quiz show De slimste mens ter wereld, acting like anything but a professor.” (See more comments in the online report in Flanders Today.) As a member of parliament, “Torfs will team up with CD&V party president Marianne Thyssen at the top of the CD&V senate list.” CD&V – Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams – is a center-right Flemish party committed to Christian Democracy.
While serving in the Senate, Professor Torfs will continue his teaching and research at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven), where he is a member of the Faculty of Canon Law, having served as Dean from 1994-2003. He has in addition been since 2000 visiting professor at both the University of Strasbourg (France) and the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa). The author of some 350 articles and numerous books dealing with canon law, law, and Church and State relationships, Professor Torfs is editor of the European Journal for Church and State Research, is a member of the Board of Directors of the European Consortium for State-Church Research, and is a newspaper columnist and host of his own television program. In 2009 he became a member of the Commission for Intercultural Dialogue (Assises de l’Interculturalité) of the Belgian government.
The 2010 Summer Research Externs
The Center is grateful for the excellent work of the 2010 Summer Research Externs, who came to Provo from nine U.S. law schools. These outstanding students provided invaluable assistance this summer with our many research and writing projects. We are especially grateful for their extensive help with the complex work of updating the 3500-page Treatise, “Religious Organizations and the Law.”
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Center Welcomes Marshall Morrise
The International Center for Law and Religion Studies is pleased to welcome the assistance of Marshall Morrise, who has been engaged by the Center to advise the technology team. On board since January 2010, Marshall brings expertise, experience, and dedication that are proving invaluable assets to the Center’s work. Marshall entered Brigham Young University as a freshman in 1974, and after serving an LDS mission to Pusan, Korea, he graduated from BYU with a B.S. in computer science and a minor in Asian languages. He began working at the BYU Law School as a student in January 1979. Upon graduation in 1980, he began working at the law school full time as a research associate under Professors…
Center Mourns the Passing of Bill Pope, 12 September 1922 – 30 November 2010
With sadness the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University notes the passing of our dear friend and longtime supporter Bill Pope, a member, as is his beloved wife, Margaret, of the Center’s International Advisory Council. Renowned educator, scientist, innovator, and businessman, Bill devotedly served his country, his church, his community, and his family. He is remembered with great affection and admiration by all of us who were privileged to know him and work with him. We were pleased and touched to be able to enjoy his cheerful support once again this year at the October International Symposium. We are grateful for his life, and grateful that he made us a part of it. Obituary here.
Dr. Tahir Mahmood Receives the 2010 Distinguished Service Award
Text of Dr. Mahmood’s Keynote Address now available here.
The International Center for Law and Religion Studies was pleased to honor renowned jurist and scholar Dr. Tahir Mahmood, Honorable Member, Eighteenth Law Commission of India, with the Distinguished Service Award at the opening session of the Seventeenth Annual International Law and Religion Symposium on 3 October 2010 in Provo, Utah. The award is given to outstanding proponents of the cause of freedom of religion or belief worldwide, and the Center is deeply honored that Dr. Mahmood, who has inaugurated, attended, and presided over…
Senator Joseph Lieberman Receives First International Religious Liberty Award, October 2010
The Video Recording of Senator Lieberman’s remarks is available here: Part 1 and Part 2.
In an award dinner held 7 October 2010 in Washington, D.C., Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut became the first recipient of the International Religious Liberty Award, given by the DC Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society and its affiliated student chapters in connection with the International Center for Law and Religion Studies. The award was given in recognition of Senator Lieberman’s outstanding contributions to the promotion and preservation of religious freedom. Among his many other efforts in this regard, Senator Lieberman was a cosponsor of the United States’ 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, which created three cooperative entities for monitoring and responding…
Religious Freedom Writing Contest for Student Members of the Clark Society
The Washington DC Chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, in association with the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University (ICLRS) and in connection with the 17th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, has announced the winning papers of the First Annual Religious Freedom Writing Contest. The contest, which was open to all student members of the Clark Society, was designed to promote quality research and writing on the important topic of religious freedom. Winners were recognized at an Award Dinner in Washington, D.C. on 7 October 2010. They received cash awards, and several of their papers will be published, online and in the BYU Law Review. …
Two ICLRS Student Research Fellows Receive Foreign Language Study Grants
The Center congratulates 2010 Student Research Fellows Rebecca Nelson Skabelund and Jordan Teuscher, who were among the four students from the J. Reuben Clark Law School and 37 students campus-wide to receive Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) grants for the 2010-2011 academic year. Each grant covers tuition and a stipend for the year, while providing students an opportunity to improve their language skills. Jordan speaks Ukrainian and some Russian…
The Center Thanks the 2010 Summer Research Fellows
The Student Research Fellows Program of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies provides an opportunity for law students to combine an international externship with significant research and writing in the area of freedom of religion or belief. The Center very much appreciates the outstanding students who have been selected this year, and we look forward to the continuing contributions of these fine scholars to our ongoing work, worldwide and here at the J. Reuben Clark Law…