Dr. David M. Kirkham presented the second lecture in the bi-monthly Religious Freedom Discussion Series, sponsored by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies in connection with the Community Service Outreach Committee of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society. Dr. Kirkham’s lecture, “Islam and Human Rights: Europe and Beyond,” was webcast on 4 May 2011 from the J. Reuben Clark Law School on the campus of Brigham Young University.

• Access recordings in two formats:  mp3 audio and mp4 video.
• Download the PowerPoint Presentation here.

Dr. Kirkham is Senior Fellow for Comparative Law and International Policy and Regional Advisor for the European Union and Council of Europe at the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS). He came to the Center in July 2007 from the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, where he served as Associate Dean and Professor of International Politics and Democratic Studies in the College of International and Security Studies. 

Dr. Kirkham has lived fifteen years of his adult life in five European countries (Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium) and officially represented the United States and the United Nations in more than forty nations on six continents. He began his career in the early 1980’s with a five-year law practice for the US Air Force in England and in Washington, D.C.  He has been an Associate Professor of History, Director of International History, and Director of International Plans and Programs at the United States Air Force Academy. He conducted international negotiations and diplomatic activities for several years for the US Government and United Nations, including as Senior Humanitarian Affairs Officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva (with duties primarily in Africa).

Dr. Kirkham’s writing and teaching address international human rights, global democratization, constitutionalism, revolution, diplomacy, the United Nations, and the global challenges posed by ideological extremism. He lectures and publishes internationally on law and religion topics. Most recently he is editor, with W. Cole Durham, Jr., Christine G. Scott, and Rik Torfs, of the forthcoming book Islam, Europe and Emerging Legal Issues, to be published by Ashgate (London) in 2011, with a follow-up volume scheduled for 2011 or 2012.

In addition to his duties at the Law School, Dr. Kirkham teaches a course “Ethics and International Affairs” for the BYU Department of Politcal Science. He speaks French and German and holds a Ph.D. from George Washington University and a Juris Doctorate from the J. Reuben Clark Law School. He is married to the former Judith Hunter, and they are the parents of eight children.