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Religion and Constitutional Practices in Asia
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The ways in which religion interacts with and influences law and policy-making have become a topic of growing significance. They raise questions, among others, about managing legal and religious pluralism; on how religion is utilised as a tool for social and political mobilisation; and on how different countries approach state-citizen relations in matters involving religion.
This research project, ‘Religion and Constitutional Practices in Asia’, brings together a group of seasoned and emerging scholars from a variety of jurisdictions to examine how religion informs constitutional practice and development in twelve Asian countries, each with different constitutional arrangements on religion.
The ‘Religion and Constitutional Practices in Asia’ conference jointly organised by the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) and the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES), was held on 9 and 10 November 2017 at ICES in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The conference was supported by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, the Ford Foundation, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The conference attracted over 40 local and international participants, in addition to 20 presenters and discussants. Some of the topics discussed include – the relationship between religious and secular authorities in a state; the operation of religious personal laws; and the importance of social and political contexts in assessing the impact of constitutional recognition (and non-recognition) of religion.
A special roundtable discussion featuring Professor Andrew Harding LL.M. ’84 (NUS Law), Professor Radhika Coomaraswamy (Emeritus Fellow at ICES and Member of the Constitutional Council of Sri Lanka), and Dr Asanga Welikala (Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law) was held on the last day of the conference.
Two recently-published monographs – Constitutions, Religion and Politics in Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka by Research Fellow Dr Dian A. H. Shah (NUS Law) and Buddhism, Politics and the Limits of Law: The Pyrrhic Constitutionalism of Sri Lanka by Associate Professor Benjamin Schonthal (University of Otago) – were launched at the conference.
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