ICLRS and IGE Partner for Religion & Rule of Law Program in Vietnam’s Central Highlands
Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies Brett Scharffs joined colleagues from the Institute for Global Engagement in Vietnam from 7-10 March 2017 to conduct a “Religion and Rule of Law” (RROL) certificate training, in partnership with the University of Social Sciences and Humanities of Vietnam National University. For more on the Center’s work in collaboration with Vietnam, please see this link. For a report on the Vietnam Central Highlands event, we are grateful for the report from IGE, below.
Press Release March 17, 2017: From 7 to 10 March 2017 the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE), in partnership with the Vietnam National University’s University of Social Sciences and Humanities and Brigham Young University’s International Center for Law and Religion…
ICLRS Partners with IGE and Mandalay Community Center for Training in Myanmar
Professor Brett Scharffs, Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, spent two weeks in Myanmar in late February and early March as part of the second Religion and the Rule of Law Training program, held in Mandalay, and a subsequent discussion in Yangon, hosted by Sitagu International Buddhist Academy. Please see below the press release from one of the Center’s partners in the endeavor, the Washington DC based Institute for Global Engagement.
Press Release: The Institute for Global Engagement (IGE), in partnership with the Mandalay Community Center in Myanmar and Brigham Young University’s International Center for Law and Religion Studies (BYU), co-convened a 10-day certificate program on Religion and Rule of Law from 20 February to 1 March 2017 in Mandalay,…
Brett Scharffs at Third Yogyakarta Short Course on Sharia and Human Rights – May 2016
Center Director Brett Scharffs participated in a Short Course on “Sharia and Human Rights: Scholarly Background and Cases of Controversy in Contemporary Indonesia,” held at Universitas Gadjah Mada, one of Indonesia’s leading state universities, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from May 23-27, 2016. This was the third year Professor Scharffs helped organize and teach in this program.
The Short Course, which was modeled on a similar course at Muhammadiyah University that was taught for the fifth time the following week, is designed to find networks of discourse between two very different types of legal systems – International Human Rights law and Islamic Law. The course brings together leading experts from Indonesia and beyond on…
First-of-its-kind Master’s Degree in Sharia and Human Rights Announced – May 2016
ICLRS Director Brett Scharffs participated in the announcement of the creation of the first-of-its-kind Master’s Degree Program on Sharia and Human Rights at Muhammadiyah University in Malang, Indonesia. The announcement came on May 30, 2016, at the opening of the fifth annual Master’s Level Course on Sharia and Human Rights held at the University, which Scharffs has helped organize and teach. The Masters’ level Course (MLC), which began five years ago as a special side-course, has now been approved as an official for-credit course in the University’s curriculum. And now a full Master’s Degree focusing on Sharia and Human Rights will build upon the curriculum used in the MLC….
Durham at Conference and Course at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria
On June 22, 2016, Professor Cole Durham delivered the keynote address and several lectures for a conference and mini-course attended by approximately 500 students and young scholars on “Law, Religion and Development in Africa” at the University of Ilorin, in Ilorin, Nigeria.
The topics covered during the Ilorin conference included:
– Law and Religion Studies in Nigeria: The journey so far.
– Law, Religion and Development.
…
Professors Durham and Scharffs Teach Comparative Freedom of Religion at CEU – 2016
Professor Brett Scharffs and Professor Cole Durham, Director and Founding Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University, have concluded their annual course, Comparative Freedom of Religion, in the Department of Legal Studies at Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary. The class, begun by Professor Durham in April and concluded by Professor Scharffs on May 5, 2016, included 26 students from 18 different countries, and addressed law and religion issues regarding both individual freedom of religion and belief and institutional arrangements between religion and the state from an international law and comparative law perspective….
Vietnam NW Highlands Regional Certificate Training Program on Religion & the Rule of Law
From September 19-24, 2016, the first-of-its-kind regional certificate training program on religion and the rule of law was held in Lao Cai city in the Northwest Highlands region of Vietnam. Although Lao Cai province has a population of only a little over 600,000, it includes 24 of the 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, and a wide array of religious and linguistic communities.
The program was modeled on successful certificate training programs over the past five years held twice in Hanoi, once in Ho Chi Minh City, and once in Danang. This was the first time the program was designed for a primarily regional rather than national audience. More than 70 students participated in the program, including religious leaders, educators, and government and party officials with responsibilities regarding…
Durham Keynotes at Judicial Roundtable in Abuja, Nigeria – 20 June 2016
On June 20, Professor Cole Durham gave the keynote address for a Judicial Roundtable of approximately 100 judges in Abuja, Nigeria. Among the participants in the Roundtable were Professor Is-haq Oloyede, OFR, The National Coordinator/Secretary, Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) and Former Vice-Chancellor, University of Ilorin, Member Steering Committee ACLARS; Wahab Shittu, Coordinator Center for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos; Hon. Justice Helen Moronkeji Ogunwumiju, Justice of the Court of Appeal, Nigeria; Denise Lindberg, Senior Judge, State of Utah Third Judicial District Court; Hon. Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Representing Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Mahmud Mohammed; Prof Yemi Osinbajo GCON (SAN), Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria; Hon, Justice A. O. Lukolu-Sodipe, Court of Appeal; Malam A. U. Maidama, representing…
“Religion and the Rule of Law Comparative Studies: Vietnam and the United States”
Press Release from the Institute for Global Engagement
From 11-12 May 2015, the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE), in partnership with Brigham Young University (BYU) and Vietnam National University’s University of Social Sciences & Humanities (USSH), conducted a “Religion and the Rule of Law Comparative Studies: Vietnam and the United States” conference in Washington, DC. The conference examined religious freedom, good governance, and policymaking in the U.S. and Vietnam.
Conference participants focused on four cross-cutting themes: 1) Registration and legal status of religious groups; 2) Rights of religious foreign entities and individuals; 3) New religions; and, 4) Religious property. Experts from both countries brought various academic, religious, legislative, and international…
First Certificate Training in Myanmar: Religion and the Rule of Law
From 30 November to 9 December, 2015, Professors W. Cole Durham and Brett G. Scharffs, Director and Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, participated in a Religion and Rule of Law Certificate Training Program in Myanmar. The 10-day event was sponsored by the Institute for Global Engagement, Brigham Young University, the Venerable Sitagu Sayadaw, The Catholic Bishops Conference of Myanmar, and the Myanmar Council of Churches. This was believed to be the first event of its kind to be held in Myanmar. Participants included leaders from each of the country’s major religious communities….
Fourth Certificate Training in Vietnam: Religion and the Rule of Law
Brigham Young University Law School professors Cole Durham and Brett Scharffs, Director and Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, participated in the fourth Certificate Training Program on Religion and the Rule of Law in Vietnam, held 14-23 September 2015 in Hanoi. Co-sponsored by the Center, the Institute for Global Engagement, and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities Hanoi, these annual training programs bring together experts in religion and good governance from Asia, Europe, and the United States with government officials, policy advisors, faith leaders, researchers, professors, and students — this year almost 70 of them — to strengthen a growing network of experts on law and religion in Vietnam and throughout Southeast…
Professor Scharffs: Two Indonesia Programs on Sharia and Human Rights – June 2015
In June 2015 Professor Brett Scharffs participated in two teaching programs designed to create bridges between Islamic Law and Human Rights. One program was held at a leading secular university in Yogyakarta, Gadja Mada University, and the other was at an Islamic University in Malang, Muhammadiyah University. The programs bring together experts on Human Rights and on Islamic Law with students of law, Islamic Law, sociology and history, as well as practitioners from a range of NGOs. Professor Scharffs made presentations on the history and drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and freedom of religion from a human rights perspective. The papers from the courses are being compiled into a textbook that will be published in both English and Bahasa in Indonesia next year. John Lowe, who just completed his first year at BYU Law School, also participated in the program, providing informal translation support and helping with logistics.
Third Certificate Training Program on Religion and the Rule of Law in Vietnam
Report by Bryant Hinckley
In July 2014 the International Center for Law and Religion Studies was pleased to co-sponsor the third annual Certificate Training Program on Religion and the Rule of Law in Vietnam. This year’s program was held in the city of Da Nang, Vietnam. Da Nang is the center of commerce and education in central Vietnam. The program featured the top Vietnamese academics dealing with law and religion in their country along with many of the world’s leading academics on the topic. Judge Clifford Wallace of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Thomas Griffith D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals also taught at the event. The Institute for Global Engagement, University…
Intensive Master Level Course in Yogyakarta : Sharia and Human Rights: Scholarly Background and Cases of Controversy in Contemporary Indonesia – 2014
Professor 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 at BYU Law School, participated in an Intensive Master Level Course on Sharia and Human Rights: Scholarly Background and Cases of Controversy in Contemporary Indonesia, held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2-6 June 2014. The event was co-sponsored by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief, and the Faculty of Law, Universitas Gadjah Mada…
Second Certificate Training Program on Religion and the Rule of Law in Vietnam
The International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS, Brigham Young University), in partnership with the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) and the University of Social Science and Humanities (USSH at Vietnam National University Hanoi) hosted the second ten-day certificate training program on “Religion and the Rule of Law” in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, from 16-25 September 2013. This program is designed to systematically build an intellectual infrastructure to help guide the current and emerging generation of Vietnamese scholars, government officials, policy advisors, and religious leaders, as they work to improve policy on religious freedom in their own contexts. The process is intended to provide a network for change, so that these Vietnamese leaders can make the case from within…
Certificate Training Program on Religion and the Rule of Law in Vietnam – December 2012
From 26 November to 5 December 2012, the Institute for Global Engagement, Brigham Young University, and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Hanoi co-conducted the first-ever certificate training program on Religion and the Rule of Law in Vietnam.
The purpose of the ten-day program was to train an emerging generation of scholars, government officials, judges, and religious leaders on international and comparative approaches to religion and the rule of law. The training—using both comparative and interdisciplinary training methods—helped to build an emerging intellectual foundation as they develop a new legal infrastructure that contributes to religious freedom and the well-being of society.
The program trained over 80 Vietnamese government officials, researchers…
Professors Cole Durham and Tore Lindholm Assist in Human Rights Advocates Training, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 9-15 August 2009
During 9-15 August 2009, ICLRS had the opportunity of joining with two Indonesian organizations, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation and the TIFA Foundation, and the Oslo Coalition for Freedom of Religion or Belief in providing a Training Course for Lawyers on Freedom of Religion or Belief that was held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. ICLRS Director Cole Durham served as one of the trainers along with ICLRS Academic Advisory Board Member Tore Lindholm, Project Group Chair for the Oslo Coalition. Professors Durham and Lindholm joined Indonesian experts Adam Pantouw, Renata Arianingtyas, Zainal Abidin, and Asfinawati in helping with the development of Indonesia-focused training materials and leading the actual training sessions. The Training Course attracted a remarkable group of 28 young Indonesian lawyers from 14 provinces who have already had significant experience defending religious communities that have suffered discrimination and persecution.
Over the last five years, Indonesia has experienced an increasing number of religious freedom and religious intolerance cases across the country. The Wahid Institute (www.wahidinstitute.org) reported that the number reached more than five cases monthly, with seven cases brought to court. Through the Belief Monitoring Body (Bakorpakem) under the attorney general’s office and Law No. 1/PnPs/1965, the government of Indonesia recognizes six religions and has the authority to monitor any beliefs existant in society. The body can recommend that the government of Indonesia dissolve belief groups by providing instructional religious teachings to them and by legally dissolving an association. The most controversial case was Ahmadiyya, which was followed by attacks on Ahmadiyya communities across the country by the other Islamic radical groups. In view of this situation, it is important to train lawyers to represent and defend victims of religious intolerance cases in any stages as well as to educate victims as to their constitutional rights to protect their freedom of religion.
Scharffs Lectures as Visiting Professor, Masters Level Course on Shari’a and Human Rights, Muhammadiyah University, Malang, Indonesia
In July 2017 Professor Brett Scharffs lectured for the sixth consecutive year at the Masters Level Course on Shari’a and Human Rights at Muhammadiyah University in Malang, Indonesia. This innovative course is designed to create avenues of discourse between two important world legal systems, Islamic law and human rights law. Professor Scharffs taught classes on the foundations of human rights, the right of freedom of thought, conscience and belief, and the regulation of religion under the rule of law. The Course was expanded in 2016 into a two-year master’s degree program on Shari’a and Human Rights at Muhammadiyah University, with the financial support of the Asia Foundation….
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.
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…
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…
Professors Durham and Scharffs Participate in First-Ever Training Program on Religion and the Rule of Law at Peking University
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 and religion topics. Those attending were primarily Chinese university professors, including professors of law, religion, and politics, government officials, religious leaders, graduate students working on their doctorates, and judges. The goal of the program was to provide a wide-ranging introduction to topics relating to religion and the rule of law from an international and comparative law perspective. Participants included students from most of the provinces of China.
The curriculum for the program was largely based upon the recently published casebook by Professors Durham and Scharffs, Law and Religion: National, International and Comparative Perspectives. The entire casebook was translated into Chinese by the program organizers, and the International Center for Law and Religion Studies helped coordinate the academic component of the program.
In addition to Durham and Scharffs, foreign trainers included Lisbet Christofferson, law professor at the University of Roskilde in Copenhagen; Silvio Ferrari, Professor of Law at the University of Milan; Brian Grim, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life; Jeremy Gunn, formerly Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Program on Freedom of Religion or Belief and currently a law professor in Morocco; James Murphy, Associate Dean and Professor at Regent Law School; Gerhard Robbers, the Chair for Public Law at the University of Trier in Germany; Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice; Rik Torfs, a Professor of Canon law and a Senator from Belgium; Johan van der Vyver, a Professor of Human Rights at Emory Law School, who is from South Africa and teaches there as well; and J. Clifford Wallace, Senior Ninth Circuit Judge and former Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
The intensive training program met each day from nine to five, with four lectures each day and additional sessions set aside for discussion, questions and answers. The program was taught in both English and Chinese with concurrent translation. Professor Scharffs said that “the level of engagement and the quality and depth of the students’ questions was very high. What I saw over my three weeks participating in the program convinces me that Chinese scholars are beginning to study and understand religion and the rule of law in a way that is very similar to their engagement with economic development issues thirty years ago.”
Professor Durham observed that the program was notable for its engagement with the question of how religion can be a mechanism for achieving social harmony, rather than something that is viewed as inimical to achieving harmony. In a plenary address, Professor Durham noted, “While trying to require everyone to play the same instrument or the same note may decrease dissonance, it is not the way to generate harmony.”
At the end of the training program, there was a related academic conference at Peking University on Religious Freedom and Ethnic Harmony. Professor Durham presented a paper at that conference on problems that arise in the definition of what is and is not a religion, and Professor Scharffs presented a paper entitled, “Religious Monopolies, Oligopolies and the Transition to a Religious Market Economy,” in which he compared the behavior of industrial monopolies at times of transition to a market economy to the behavior of religious monopolies when a country is transitioning to a religious free market. In addition to a large number of Chinese scholars, this conference included Dieter Grimm, a former member of the German Constitutional Court; Sophie van Bijsterveld, a law professor and Senator from the Netherlands; and Jeremy Webber, a law professor from Canada, as well as a number of the foreign experts who participated in the training program.