Faculty Profile

The founding director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, W. Cole Durham, Jr. is an emeritus professor of law at J. Reuben Clark Law School, where he held the Susa Young Gates University Professorship. Durham received multiple honors, including appointment as co-chair of the OSCE Advisory Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief, and service as vice president of the International Academy for Freedom of Religion and Belief.

A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Professor Durham is heavily involved in comparative constitutional law and church-state relations throughout his career. He has published widely on comparative law, has served in the past as the chair of both the Comparative Law Section and the Law and Religion Section of the American Association of Law Schools, and is a member of several US and international advisory boards dealing with religious freedom and church-state relations.