Cole Durham - Law Reform

Law Reform

Durham has been involved in constitutional drafting projects in Nepal (2011 and 2009), Thailand (2007), and Iraq (2005–06). He has worked on constitutional and statutory drafting projects throughout Eastern Europe and in most former Soviet bloc countries. He has been active in matters involving relations between religion and the state, though he also has extensive experience with comparative criminal law and non-profit law. He serves as a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights’s Advisory Council on Freedom of Religion or Belief. He is Vice President of the International Academy for Freedom of Religion and Belief. He serves as a board member of church-state centers at DePaul and Baylor Universities, of the International Religious Liberty Association, and of the International Advisory Board of the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief.

Durham also works on laws governing the civil society sector, having served as Chairman of the Board of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law in Washington, D.C., and also served on its board for several years. Durham has played a role in advising governments throughout much of the former socialist bloc on constitutional provisions and legislation dealing with criminal law and procedure, court structure, general constitutional issues, and the law of associations, including particularly religious associations. Durham has studied religious law in many parts of eastern Europe, and in countries such as Bulgaria he made public statements intended to halt the enactment of laws that would have negative effects on religious liberty.

Durham has helped organize technical assistance to law reform projects and comparative law conferences in countries around the world. This has included consultations on constitutional issues and laws in Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Hungary, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Peru, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Samoa, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam. In the United States, Durham organized a series of conferences on comparative law issues at Brigham Young University, which have brought together some 850 scholars and experts dealing with comparative constitutional law themes from more than 100 countries.

Durham has testified before the U.S. Congress in hearings on religious intolerance in Europe and on the Religious Liberty Protection Act.

In the wake of the United States Supreme Court ruling in Employment Division v. Smith, Durham testified to the House Judiciary Committee on the negative effects of this ruling.

In March 2010 Durham testified via video conference during hearings before the Constitutional Court of Indonesia concerning proposed revision of Indonesia's 1965 Blasphemy Law.

In June 2011 Durham and his colleagues at the International Center for Law and Religion Studies filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case concerning the hiring practices of a Lutheran Church School.