Religion and State

In developing this project, the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program sought to bring together for a discussion a small number of people who had given sustained thought from different perspectives to issues of relationships between religion and state. The eighteen participants noted in the Annex come from nine countries with widely varying experiences and structures in this field of inquiry. The forma and process for this meeting in Vouliagmeni, Greece in October 1999 followed the pattern of prior meetings arranged by the Human Rights Program. Edited readings on this subject were prepared by the Program and distributed to all participants. No formal papers were presented. The participants engaged in an interdisciplinary roundtable discussion about the issues that were outlined in advance" of the meeting. Peter Rosenblum, then associate director of the Program, did most of the work in editing the transcript. The published text considerably shortens the original transcript and occasionally revises the order of remarks, in order to present a readable and cogent exchange of ideas. Each participant had the opportunity to review and correct a draft of this publication, to be certain that its text accurately reflects the views expressed during the discussions. The Program and the Israel Democracy Institute provided the funds for the meeting, and the Program covered the costs of this publication.