Durham at 4th Sino-U.S. Counterterrorism Dialogue – Beijing, 4-6 August 2017
IGE 5 September 2017: From 4-6 August, the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) led a delegation to Beijing, China, to co-convene the 4th Sino-U.S. Counterterrorism Dialogue. Since the dialogue’s inception in 2014, it has sought to deepen communication and understanding between Chinese and U.S. government, military, civil society, and business leaders over issues related to terrorism, religion, security, and governance. This Track 1.5 dialogue was hosted by the U.S.-China New Perspectives Foundation (NPF) and the Pu Shi Institute for Social Science (PS).
The IGE delegation was led by Chris Seiple, IGE’s president emeritus, and included: BG (ret.) Michael Meese, chief operating officer of the American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association; Geoff Davis, former U.S. Representative to Congress; Cole Durham, professor of law at Brigham Young University; and, James Chen, IGE’s executive director….
Durham and Scharffs at the 8th Annual Certificate Training Program in Beijing, August 2017
On August 7-9, Professor Cole Durham and Professor Brett Scharffs participated as trainers in the 8th annual Certificate Training Program on Religion and the Rule of Law held in Beijing, China, sponsored by the Pu Shi Institute. Durham and Scharffs each spoke on several topics relating to this year’s program theme, Religion and Security. Durham lectured on the strategic outlook and global trends in countering violent extremism, the “International Bill of Rights” related to religion, and newly emerging religions. Scharffs spoke on the legal status of religious groups, religious freedom and free speech, and religious property…
G20 Interfaith Forum 2016 in China: “Dialogue among Civilizations and Community of Common Destiny for All Mankind”
Hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and jointly sponsored by the Institute of World Religions and the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University, a unique event took place in Beijing, China, 30 August – 1 September 2016, simultaneously with the meeting of world leaders for the G20 Economic Summit in Hangzhou. Chinese scholars joined with other international experts to discuss the topic “Dialogue among Civilizations and Community of Common Destiny for All Mankind”.
International experts participating in the event included Paul Babie and Carolyn Evans (Australia), Elizabeta Kitanović (working in Belgium), Rodrigo Vitorino…
Brett Scharffs at Symposium in Beijing on Marxist Theories of Religion – May 2015
Dean Brett G. Scharffs, Associate Dean for Faculty and Curriculum, Francis R. Kirkham Professor of Law, and Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, participated in a Symposium on Marxist Theories of Religion sponsored by the Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on May 30-31, 2015, in Beijing. Professor Scharffs’ presentation was titled, “The Relationship of Religion and the State: The Surprising Similarities and Important Differences in the Political Philosophy of Marx and Locke.” The paper, which will be published in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Journal of the Institute of World Religions, will focus on a narrow question: How should we understand the respective views of Karl Marx and John Locke on the ideal relationship of religion and the state?
The paper focuses not on the respective views of Marx and Locke about the truth of (some) religion, its social value, or its historical prospects. Rather, it focuses on the particular issue of how the state should situate itself institutionally vis-à-vis religion. Professor Scharffs argues “that for all their differences – and they are legion – there is a surprising overlap between Marx and Locke in their thinking about the political and legal stance that the state should take towards religion as a social institution. Both argue, powerfully and unequivocally against an alignment of religion and the state, and both argue for a strong separation of religion and the state. The expectation of the ultimate outcome of this separation is different. Locke expects ‘true’ religion to flourish; Marx expects religion, stripped bare of state sanction and support, to gradually recede and perhaps disappear. But that is a question history will answer. For the state, here and now, and all the more in the ‘new normal’ of globalization and rapid social change, both would reject a management mindset and agree that the proper political stance of the state should be one of institutional and financial separation.
Fifth China Certificate Training Program, Beijing, July-August 2014
Report by Jarvis Yau
The 2014 Summer Certificate Training Program on Religion and Rule of Law was held in Beijing, China from July 28 to August 8 this year. The event was co-organized by Pu Shi Institute for Social Science, Peking University School of Law, and the Beijing Foreign Studies University School of Law. The International Center for Law and Religion Studies and the Institute for Global Engagement have also sent representatives to provide assistance at the training program. Many prominent scholars around the world were invited to speak at the program and share the results of their research.
The training covers a wide range of…
Summer Certificate Training Program in China 2013: Religion and the Rule of Law
The fourth Summer Certificate Training Program in China, Religion and the Rule of Law, took palce at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, PRC, July 15-26, 2013. The event was sponsored by The Center for Constitutional and Administrative Law, Peking University Law School; the Pu Shi Institute for Social Science; and the Beijing Foreign Studies University. Cole Durham, Brett Scharffs, and Law Student Carl Hollan attended from Brigham Young University….
China Certificate Training Program Alumni Meet in Beijing
Alumni from the first four annual Certificate Training Programs in Religion and the Rule of Law gathered in Beijing on Saturday, November 1, 2013, to discuss the future of religion and the rule of law in China and elsewhere in Asia, and to share their recent research. Thirty former participants in the Certificate Training Programs from 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 participated in the meeting, which is one of four regional “midyear” conferences being held during October and November in various cities in China. International Center for Law and Religion Studies Associate Director Brett Scharffs participated in the meeting and made a presentation about law and religion fellowships at BYU Law School. A Fifth Certificate Training Program will be held in Beijing in July 2014.
Scharffs at Beijing Forum【2012 Panel II】on Faith and Society in a Global Age
Professor Brett G. Scharffs, Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University, delivered the paper “Regulating Religion: Formal and Informal Mechanisms of State and Social Oversight in an Easy-entry Registration System — The U.S. Experience” at the Beijing Forum 2012, “The Harmony of Civilizations and Properity of All,” held 2-4 November 2012 in Beijing. Professor Scharffs was a participant in the second of the Forum’s 10…
China Certificate Training Program 2012
By Liu Peng
Pushi Institute for Social Science
From July 9 to 20, 2012, the International League of Higher Education in Media and Communication of the Communication University of China, School of Political Science and Law of the Communication University of China, Center for People’s Congress and Foreign Legislations Study of Peking University Law School, and the Pushi Institute for Social Science jointly held the Religion and Rule of Law Summer Training Program in Beijing. Seventeen experts…
China Social Science Forum: Religious Charities and Social Development 2012
The China Social Science Forum (2012 • Religious Studies) — Religious Charities and Social Development, sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), was held by the Institute of World Religions, 11-12 December 2012, in Beijing. Professor Brett G. Scharffs and Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr., Associate Director and Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, were among the foreign experts making presentations at the Forum.
Photo: Ma Guilin is General Secretary and Vice President of the China Charity International Exchange Center; Zhang Daocheng is Vice Secretary-General, The National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Vice Director of the China Charity Federation.  …
Second Summer Conference on Religion and the Rule of Law – Beijing, July 2011
For a second summer, a number of foreign scholars traveled to China to participate in an intensive course on comparative and international law and religion. The 2011 Summer Training Program on Religion and the Rule of Law, held in Beijing from 17-31 July, was sponsored by Peking University Law School’s Center for Constitutional and Administrative Law, together with the Pu Shi Institute for Social Sciences, a Chinese think tank devoted to issues relating to religion and the rule of law.
Professors Brett Scharffs and Cole Durham of Brigham Young University’s International Center for Law and Religion Studies once again coordinated the academic component of the program…
Religion in the Social Transition of Contemporary China, 13-14 October 2011
Scholars from China and the United States met at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C., for a two-day conference, 13 & 14 October 2011, on the topic Religion in the Social Transition of Contemporary China. The event, a collaboration of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States and the Asia Research Center Foundation, examined “this critical and timely topic” through the varying perspectives of the distinguished participants.
“The rapid growth of religious activity in China, especially among Christians but including other religions as well, raises profound questions about the relationship of religion to government, its impact on society, and its potential effects…
Professors Durham and Scharffs Participate in First-Ever Training Program on Religion and the Rule of Law at Peking University – August 2010
ICLRS Director Cole Durham and Associate Director Brett Scharffs were among a dozen foreign scholars invited by Peking University to participate in a first-of-its kind summer training program on religion and the rule of law held 3-22 August 2010 in Beijing. The program was sponsored by the Center for Constitutional and Administrative Law at Peking University, under the direction of Professor Zhang Qianfan, and the Pu Shi Institute for Social Sciences, whose director Liu Peng is one of China’s leading experts on religion in America. The program brought more than sixty Chinese scholars from around the country to Beijing for an intensive course on comparative and international law…