Welcome to Talk About: the Blog of The International Center for Law and Religion Studies
The mission of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies of Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School is to help secure the blessings of freedom of religion and belief for all people. Scholars at the Center specialize in comparative and international law concerning religion, partnering with academic, governmental, and non-governmental institutions around the world to organize conferences and workshops to improve understanding and expertise at the critical intersection where law and religion meet.
Designated sections of Talk About are dedicated to world events or collaborative initiatives, such as Religion and the Russian-Ukrainian War, the First Annual Forum on Law and Religion of the Southern Cone (with posts in English and Spanish), COVID-19, and the Punta del Este Declaration. The latter grew from a celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 2018, when a group of international advocates of freedom of religion or belief met in Punta del Este, Uruguay, to initiate a global conversation about preserving and protecting human dignity for everyone everywhere.
The Center conducts teaching programs in many parts of the world, where young scholars and legal professionals join in learning from Center scholars and international partners, and in sharing expertise from varying perspectives about concepts relevant to religion and the rule of law. A number of Talk About blog posts are contributed by participants in these Center programs.
Dmytro Vovk, Director of the Centre for the Rule of Law and Religion Studies at Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and Amy Lynn Andrus, ICLRS Associate Director, are co-editors of Talk About. Professor Vovk was a member of the first class of the Young Scholars Fellowship on Religion and the Rule of Law, hosted at Christ Church College, Oxford, in summer 2018, and was a visiting scholar at BYU Law School in 2019.
Contributing editors are Donlu Thayer, former ICLRS Publications Director, now a Center Senior Fellow, and Jane Wise, former ICLRS Associate Director.