The seminar “Secularism, secularity and religious life in Southeast Asia” was held by the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH) in collaboration with Reuben Clark Law School (RCLS) from the US.

Attending at the seminar included Deputy Principal of the USSH Prof. Nguyễn Văn Kim, Director of RCLS’s Center for Religion and Legal Studies Prof. Brett Scharffs, Head of the USSH’s Intensive Research Group for Religion and the Rule of Law Prof. Đỗ Quang Hưng, some scholars from India, Indonesia and the US, and a large number of experts and scholars from religion-related research and academic institutes in the country.

The event drew over 20 presentation papers focusing on discussion and clarification of issues related to secularism, secularity, the religious life in Asia, secularization in Southeast Asia, and secularization including needs and practices in Vietnam.

Assoc. Prof. Lê Bá Trình, Former Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee and Prof. Cole Durham, Honorary President of the JRCLS’s Center for Religion and Legal Studies attended and delivered speeches at the event.

For recent years, the USSH under the Vietnam National University and the RCLS under Brigham Young University in US have had many academic exchanges and cooperation on studies of religion and the rule of law. In April 2019, they co-organized an international seminar on the implementation of the Law on Belief and Religion in Vietnam.

NL