PRESENTATION

The overall purpose of the course is to engage students with law and religion in an international and multicultural context. Challenging the limits of a law and religion approach based on a mono national and/or religious basis, the School is an open and free space where students and teachers with various backgrounds (as a matter of geography, knowledge, ideas) can meet and dialogue, discover differences and look for a common language.
The legal approach to religion will be as open minded and independent as possible. International law and public and private law, but also theological, social and political sciences will be taken into account. As for the subjects, both religious legal systems (e.g. Islamic law, Jewish law, canon law) and legal treatment of religious issues (e.g. religious freedom, legal status of religious groups, new religious movements, islam in western countries) will be included.
The Summer School will address both the substantive and the methodological aspect in order to foster a critical understanding of law and religion. Each Summer School will be devoted to a selected theme. The substantive theme will be used also to discuss in a concrete way the methodological problems of international and comparative law and religion.
During one week in August at the College S. Chiara (Siena, Italy) the Summer School will enable participants to have a direct contact in a very interactive context with some of the leading specialists in the field (from all over the world). Classes will not be simply a matter of a teacher reading out a lecture: he or she will encourage students to contribute ideas, to learn from one another and to participate in discussion. The variety of working formulae adopted (lectures, seminar discussions, student presentations, panel sessions, informal talks) will enhance active participation.
Exposition to an international milieu will be an obvious bonus for the participants. The School believes that intense interactions among young researchers coming from different countries and working in the same field is the first step in the building of cross-national research networks that will continue their co-operation after the end of the Summer School. The participants will be able not only to increase their knowledge of the topics treated in the Summer School but also to submit to public discussion (both by more senior scholars and by their peers) the research work they are already engaged in or the concrete issues they are facing as private or public professionals in the field.