Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University

The Center for the Study of Law and Religion, based at the School of Law of Emory University, Georgia, is designed to explore the religious dimensions of law, the legal dimensions of religion, and the interaction of legal and religious ideas, institutions, and methods. The CSLR predicates its work on the belief that religion gives law its spirit and inspires its adherence to ritual, tradition, and justice. Law gives religion its structure and encourages its devotion to order, organization, and orthodoxy. Law and religion share such ideas as fault, obligation, and covenant and such methods as ethics, rhetoric, and textual interpretation. Law and religion also balance each other by counterpoising justice and mercy, rule and equity, discipline and love. IGE partnered with CSLR to hold a September 2006 conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, on "Religion and Rule of Law in Southeast Asia," which convened experts in law and religion from 10 countries to discuss comparative approaches to regulating religion in a Southeast Asian cultural context. IGE's Council on Faith and International Affairs (CFIA) and CSLR also co-sponsored a conference on "Law and Religion in Transitional Societies" in Oslo, Norway, in 2006.