Global Teaching and Certificate Training

ICLRS is the leading academic center focused on law and religion from an international and comparative law perspective. Below are some of the programs the Center has founded to bring together people and international networks that are interested in the study of law and religion.

• 1994. ICLRS Founding Director Cole Durham began to teach Freedom of Religion each year at Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary. He was joined in the work in 2007 by current Center Director Brett Scharffs. The professors continue to teach international students each spring, and to organize annual conferences at CEU.
• 2009.  The Center joined with two Indonesian organizations, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation and the TIFA Foundation and the Oslo Coalition for Freedom of Religion or Belief of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights of the University of Oslo Faculty of Law to provide a Training Course for Lawyers on Freedom of Religion or Belief in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
• 2012.  Annual Certificate Training Programs in Religion and the Rule of Law in China began in 2012. ICLRS partners with Peking University Law School’s Center for Administrative and Constitutional Law, the Pu Shi Institute, and the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) in Washington, D.C.
• 2012. The Certificate Training Program in Religion and the Rule of Law in Vietnam also began in 2012, Partners in this program are Vietnam National University/University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Hanoi and IGE.  National programs have been held in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, with two regional programs held in Lao Cai in the northwest highlands (2016) and Gai Lai in the central highlands (2017).

• 2014. Teaching programs in Indonesia continued when ICLRS once again partnered with the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief, and in addition with the  Faculty of Law of Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta and Muhammadiyah Univeristy in Malang in conducting an Intensive Masters Level Courses in Sharia and Human Rights.  The Certificate Training Program on Religion and the Rule of Law Indonesia is in partnership with the Leimena Institute in Jakarta, several Indonesian universities, and IGE.
• 2015. ICLRS Certificate Training Programs in Religion and the Rule of Law in Myanmar are held with IGE and local partners including the Sitagu Buddhist Academy, the Mynmar Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Myanmar Christian Council.
• 2016. The Center’s Nigerian Certificate Training Program in Religion and the Rule of Law in Africa is conducted in partnership with the University of Lagos School of Law and the University of Abuja School of Law.
• 2018.  Most recently the Center launched he Young Scholars Fellowship Program. Held at Christ Church College, Oxford, for three weeks in late summer, this annual event trains young scholars, academics, and government officials in religion and the rule of law. The 15 international participants of the 2018 Charter Class were chosen from human rights and comparative law backgrounds, and included lawyer-scholars and students from Afghanistan/Netherlands, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Greece, Israel, Poland, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam.