From September 28-29, 2021, IGE and its partners co-conducted an online conference on “Religion and the Rule of Law: Towards a Harmonious Relationship in the Era of Globalization.” The conference was hosted by Vietnam National University (VNU) Law School in Hanoi and co-organized by IGE, the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science Faith Centre, and Vietnam-USA Society.

The two-day conference drew over 100 participants from Vietnam, the U.S., and other countries around the world. The sessions featured legal experts and religion scholars from the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Brazil, Japan, India, China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The speakers addressed a variety of topics including: relations between religion and the rule of law, international human rights standards, religious freedom in modern society, religious conflict and solutions, and religious accommodation and human dignity. 

This conference was held under the auspices of the 2017 Memorandum of Understanding that IGE signed with VUS in Washington, D.C. to promote religious freedom in Vietnam and people-to-people relations between the two countries. The successful conference follows last year’s publication of the first ever religious freedom textbook in Vietnam, a joint project between IGE and VNU Law School. Research papers and PowerPoint presentations from the conference can be downloaded here.