Religion and Law Consortium

Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr. Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies and Brigham Young University and Professor Javier Martinez-Torrón of the Law Faculty of Complutense University in Madrid and member of the ICLRS Academic Advisory Board will participate in The XVIIIth International Congress of Comparative Law, to be held 25-31 July 2010 in Washington, D.C.  The Congress, which is organized by the International Academy of Comparative Law, an 80-year-old organization of 333 members from more than 44 countries, is held once every four years in different parts of the world. This is the first year the Congress has been held in the United States, where it is being co-sponsored by the American Society of Comparative Law and hosted by American University Washington College of Law, George Washington University Law School, and Georgetown University Law Center.  Professors Martinez-Torrón and Durham are acting as General Reporters for the topic "Religion and the Secular State," and will make a presentation at the Congress in a Thursday-afternoon meeting chaired ... [more]

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies has announced the 2010 Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, to be held 3-6 October at Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School in Provo, Utah. This year's Symposium will be devoted to discussion of "Religion in Contemporary Legal Systems." Participants will be invited to address such topics as "Regulating Religious Speech and Symbols," "Islamic Practice: Differing Experiences," and "The Religion Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights."

June 2010 - Geneva

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has concluded its fourteenth regular session and released a summary of the meetings. The session, presided over by Ambassador Alex Van Meeuwen of Belgium, was ... [more]

May 2010 - Europe and Quebec

The lower house of the Belgian parliament, with near unanimity, has on 29 April 2010 passed a bill authorizing a nationwide ban on clothes or veils that do not allow the wearer to be fully identified, including the full-face niqab or burqa. Penalties would include fines and jail sentences of up to a week. The bill is expected easily to pass the upper house of parliament, which officially had two weeks to raise objections. At this point, Belgium ... [more]

Bulletin 11 May 2010 - Mojave National Preserve, California

The seven-foot-tall metal "Mojave Cross" has disappeared, apparently removed by vandals some time during the night of 9-10 May 2010.

April 2010 - Washington, D.C. 

In a judgment of potential significance for future U.S. church-state disputes, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that a California federal court went too far in ordering the removal of a war memorial cross long displayed on federal land in a remote area of the California desert. The 5-4 ... [more]

April 2010 - Strasbourg 

In a decision rendered on 20 April 2010, the European Court of Human Rights has found the application of M. Jean-Marie Le Pen, president of the French "National Front" party, to be inadmissible. For statements made about Muslims in France in a 2005 interview with Le Monde daily newspaper, Le Pen was fined 10,000 euros for "incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence towards a group of people because of their origin ... [more]

March 2010 - Geneva

The United Nations Human Rights Council has on 25 March 2010 passed by a narrow margin (20-17, with 8 abstentions) a non-binding resolution condemning "defamation of religion." The resolution, proposed by Pakistani representative Zamir Akram on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), includes a strong condemnation of such activities as Switzerland's recent ban on the construction of ... [more]

March 2010 - Legon, Ghana 

The 16th Annual Conference of the International Society for African Philosophy and Studies (ISPAS) took place in The Great Hall of the University of Ghana in Legon on 17-19 March 2010.  The conference, "Culture and Justice in the Contemporary World," was organized in collaboration with the University of Ghana’s Philosophy Department and its Faculty of Law under ... [more]

January 2010

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies has announced the release of the casebook Law and Religion: National, International, and Comparative Perspectives, co-authored by ICLRS Director W. Cole Durham, Jr. and Associate Director Brett G. Scharffs and published by Aspen Publishers / Wolters Kluwer Law & Business. Developed for use in English-speaking law-school courses, the work is a dynamic combination of international and domestic materials, designed to stimulate discussion of familiar and sensitive issues of conflict and debate in a global context. "Timely and incisive," the publishers note, it "makes a valuable contribution to the study of Law and Religion, Church and State, International Human Rights, Comparative Constitutional Law, and First Amendment Law."

November 2009 - Strasbourg

On 3 November 2009 the European Court of Human Rights issued its decision in the case of Lautsi v. Italy, ruling that the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools violates Article 2 of Protocol 1 (right to education) and Article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the European Convention on Human Rights.  Rejecting the assertions of the Italian government that the crucifix is a national symbol with cultural and historical significance expressing identity, tolerance, and secularism, the court ordered the government to pay a fine of €5000 ($7,300) to applicant Soile Lautsi, mother of two children whom she claimed were affronted by the display of crucifixes in the public school they attended. Church representatives and government officials were angered and confused by the "extraordinarily wide" ruling, which could have the effect of forcing review of displays of religious symbols in government-run schools across Europe. 

November 2009 - Strasbourg

In a chamber judgment of 6 October 2009, the European Court of Human Rights issued a controversial decision on conscientious objection in the case Bayatyan v. Armenia. Commenting on the decision in a 19 November 2009 report of Forum 18 News Service, Derek Brett of Conscience and Peace Tax International asserts that the Court, "apparently unaware ... [more]

May 2009 -  Budapest

In conjunction with Central European University, the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS) sponsored a conference entitled “Religious Autonomy” held 29-30 May 2009 in Budapest, Hungary. Conference topics focused on theological and jurisprudential perspectives on religious autonomy. The assembled experts also discussed autonomy issues that are currently under consideration by the European Court of Human Rights, specifically, religious employment and the resolution of religious disputes. Finally, ... [more]

January 2009 

Two important dates in January recognize the right of religious freedom: January 16th is national Religious Freedom Day and January 11th is Religious Freedom Sunday, a nationwide initiative established by Gateways to Better Education to increase awareness of Religious Freedom Day. January 16th is the anniversary of the passage of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, drafted by Thomas Jefferson and intended to protect the rights of all people to express, or to not express, their religious beliefs free of discrimination based on those ... [more]