Law and Religion Scholars Network
About LARSN
Launched in May 2008, LARSN is a national initiative led by the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University, which seeks to bring together for the first time academics who are interested in all areas of law and religion: national and international law affecting religion and religious law. It currently has over a hundred members.
Current LARSN activities include:
[I] LARSN Mailbase
The Applied Study of Law and Religion Group at Oxford Brookes University maintain LARSN’s mailbase, law-religion-uk@jiscmail.ac.uk.
To join the mailbase, email LAW-RELIGION-UK-request@jiscmail.ac.uk.
To visit the list: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/mailinglists/index.htm
[II] Law and Religion Teaching Survey
At the inaugural meeting, LARSN members decided that a survey should be circulated on law and religion teaching and supervision. The LARSN Teaching Survey, conducted in 2008, showed that:
- Law and religion (or apsects of law and religion) were being taught as a subject in its own right at either undergraduate or postgraduate levels at Bangor, Bristol, Canterbury Christ Church, Cardiff, Leicester, Newcastle and Oxford Brookes
- Academics from Wescott House at Cambridge, Liverpool John Moores, Keele and Queen’s University, Belfast expressed interest in running such courses.
- Law and religion was being taught as part of another legal (or other) discipline at Bangor, Bristol, Wescott House, Canterbury Christ Church, Cardiff, Keele, Liverpool John Moores, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford Brookes, Queen’s University, Belfast and Stirling with law and religion particularly being taught as part of constitutional, human rights, discrimination and criminal law courses.
- At Bangor, Bristol, Cardiff, Keele, Leicester, Manchester, Oxford Brookes, Queen’s Univeristy, Belfast and Stirling students were undertaking research projects / dissertations on law and religion.
The full results of this survey are available to LARSN members.
[III] LARSN Conference
The second meeting of the Law and Religion Scholars Network (LARSN) has been held at the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff Law School on Tuesday 5th May 2009.
The 2009 meeting coincided with the first LARSN Conference. Over twenty academic papers were presented. The Islamic law of War, the accommodation of the Ten Commandments in English law and the effect of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 upon alternative spiritualities were amongst the topics discussed. The law on religious discrimination, the interaction between religion and education law and the ideas expressed in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s lecture on Sharia law were also the subject of papers.
The day concluded with a meeting, chaired by Russell Sandberg, which assessed the progress of LARSN in its first year and planned for the future of the Network. The agreed Action Plan for 2009 /2010 is now available.
A further conference will be held at Cardiff in May 2010, which will include the third meeting of the Network.
[IV] LARSN Doctoral Students Conference
A one day conference at Oxford Brookes University was held on 30 June 2009 giving doctoral students from across the UK a chance to share their work in the field of law and religion with other students and scholars working in the area. A further conference for doctoral students is planned. Information about the event and details of current PhD research can be found on the LARSN Doctoral Students Website.
[V] LARSN Case Database, Publications List and weblinks
In conjunction with the journal Law & Justice, LARSN maintains a list of books and articles published in this field and a database of domestic and Strasbourg decisions. For each case, the database provides a summary of the decision and a link to the transcript. There is also a collection of relevant weblinks.
Further Information
If you wish to join, or require further information, please contact: Russell Sandberg