Regulating Religion: Normativity and Change at The Intersection of Law and Religion

On 14 and 15 December 2015, Assistant Professors Arif Jamal and Jaclyn Neo, together with Associate Professor Daniel PS Goh, organised an international workshop entitled “Regulating Religion: Normativity and Change at the Intersection of Law and Religion” at NUS Law.

The workshop, which was supported by the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS), brought together approximately two dozen scholars from a wide range of disciplines including sociology, politics, theology, history, religious studies and law. Hailing from Asia, Europe, North America and Africa, they came together to discuss the important area of the regulation of religion. Six plenary panels were convened over the two days, during which 24 papers were presented. Mr Abdullah Tarmugi, current member of the Presidential Council of Minority Rights, former Speaker of Parliament, and former Minister of Muslim Affairs, was the guest of honour.

The panels addressed topics including the constitutional regulation of religion, the impact of regulation on religious freedom, regulation under conditions of pluralism, the state and personal law regimes, and theoretical perspectives on regulating religion. While this was the first major workshop on law and religion issues to be held at NUS Law, the call for papers attracted an overwhelming response indicating that the area is ripe for more work in time to come. The organisers of the workshop will be working with the participants to have the workshop papers published.