The International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS) is an academic society run from Milan, which brings together researchers in the field of law and religion from all over the world. It started in 2007 with the aim to provide a forum where information, data and opinions could easily be exchanged among members and made available to the broader academic community. To this end, ICLARS regularly organises conferences and publishes books and a newsletter.
The first three international conferences took place in Milan, Santiago de Chile and at two old universities in Virginia (the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville). The fourth conference, at St Hugh's College, Oxford, was attended by almost two hundred experts on law and religion from 27 countries. A large number were researchers from Europe but there was also a significant proportion of participants from the USA and Canada, as well as scholars from Latin America and various African and Asian countries.
The conference started with young scholars’ presentations on the first day. In the evening the keynote address was delivered by David Novak, Professor in Jewish Studies, Religion and Philosophy at the University of Toronto, on the theme ‘What is religious freedom?’
Five plenary sessions were accompanied by dozens of parallel sessions and more than 110 papers were delivered in all. Among the topics covered were ‘Freedom of religion: fundamental right or impossibility?’, ‘Freedom of religion and international law’, ‘Freedom(s) of religion and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights’, ‘Freedom of religion and equality’, ‘Freedom within religion’, ‘Comparing freedom of religion in different religious traditions’, ‘Freedom of religion and indigenous populations’, ‘Freedom of religion and non-discrimination’, ‘The challenge of migration to freedom of religion’ and ‘Freedom of religion and sacred places’.
The conference president was Professor W Cole Durham, founding director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at J Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Professor Silvio Ferrari from the University of Milan, Honorary President of ICLARS and member of the editorial board of this Journal, participated in the leadership of the conference.
Among the speakers, distinguished scholars from all over the world were present, including Professor Norman Doe (Cardiff), Javier Martínez-Torrón (Madrid), Professor Mark Hill QC (London), Jiří Rajmund Tretera (Prague), Merilin Kiviorg (Tartu, Estonia), Marco Ventura (Siena), Lisbet Christoffersen (Copenhagen), Joseph David (Jerusalem), Mark Goldfeder (Atlanta), Brett G Scharffs (Provo, Utah), Sophie van Bijsterveld (Nijmegen, Netherlands) and Johan van der Vyver (Pretoria).
The launch of Brill's five-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws took place during the conference. The encyclopaedia, which contains information on law and religion in all states, dependent territories of the world and international organisations and other entities, was created thanks to the activities of ICLARS. Professor Durham, one of the two general editors of the Encyclopaedia, and its associate editor, Dr Donlu D Thayer, also from Brigham Young University Law School, participated in the launch.
Meetings of law and religion journals and book series and meetings of law and religion associations from around the world took place on the final day of the conference. The programme continued with the ICLARS General Assembly. Professor Ana María Celis Brunet, Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Law and Religion, Faculty of Law, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and another member of this Journal’s editorial board, was elected as the President of ICLARS. A new steering committee was elected and Professor Celis Brunet chose Professor Mark Hill QC as her deputy.
