About the Center

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies was established within Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School on January 1, 2000, charged with a three-fold mission:  (1) to expand and disseminate knowledge and expertise regarding the interrelationship of law and religion, (2) to facilitate the growth of networks of scholars, experts, and policy makers involved in the field of religion and law, and (3) to contribute to law reform processes and broader implementation of principles of religious freedom worldwide.

In a real sense, the Center’s work and mission had begun a decade earlier, as BYU Law Professor  W. Cole Durham, Jr. began to form networks among scholars in the United States and throughout the world and to engage the law school community in organizing conferences and publishing papers. The first of what would become the Annual International Law and Religion Symposium was held in 1993, and since that time more than 1000 key scholars and…