The Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University promotes and produces innovative research and scholarship, exemplary teaching and training, robust public engagement, and generous support of individual faculty initiatives at the intersection of law and religion.

The mission of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion is to produce and promote path-breaking scholarship, teaching, and public programs on the interaction of law and religion around the world.

The vision of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion is to be a thought leader dedicated to producing innovative scholarship, facilitating challenging conversations, convening the best minds, and training the next generation of academics, lawyers, and religious leaders to advance the global conversation on law and religion.

Emory University founded its program in law and religion in 1982 as part of a larger goal of building a fully interdisciplinary university. The program’s mission was to increase understanding of the fundamental role of religion in shaping law, politics, and society. At the time, no other major U.S. law school devoted serious scholarship or teaching to the field of law and religion. In fact, Emory’s vision of studying religion alongside law and other professional disciplines met with suspicion, even hostility, in some quarters.

From its modest beginning, however, the program has grown into the Center for the Study of Law and Religion (CSLR), offering six degree programs, a score of cross-listed courses, several multiyear research projects, student and visiting fellowships, more than 350 books and symposia, and regular international

Staff

– Director: John Witte, Jr.
– Managing Director: Silas W. Allard

Conferences and lectures

The founders of the program, then-president James T. Laney and Emory law professor Frank S. Alexander, believed in the vital need for focused scholarship and teaching in this new field. Here, students and scholars could probe the tension between church and state, religion and politics. Here they could come to understand the nuances of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic laws and their place in modern nations.

Strategic Framework

The Center’s work is three-dimensional, focused on Religious Perspectives, Legal Perspectives, and Interdisciplinary Methods.

Fom 2018 – 2025, CSLR will continue its focus on Law and Judaism; Law and Christianity; Law and Islam; and Law, Religion, and Human Rights. Additionally, It will establish two new focus areas on Law, Religion, and Jurisprudence; Law, Religion, and Social Justice and Law, Religion, and Health. To view CSLR’s strategic plan, go here.

Contacts

• Address: 310 Gambrell Hall, 1301 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30322-2770, USA
• Phone: +1 404 712 8710
• Fax: +1 404 712 8605
• Email: lawcslr@emory.edu
• Website: http://cslr.law.emory.edu/