On 2 May 2008, the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University launched LARSN – the Law and Religion Scholars Network. This initial meeting, chaired by Professor Norman Doe, Dr Javier García Oliva and Russell Sandberg, brought together nearly 30 scholars working in the area, and would have been attended by a further 21 had diaries permitted. The event began with participants briefly introducing themselves and their areas. This revealed not just the amount of scholarly activity being undertaken in law and religion but also the range of interests. Work was ongoing in areas as diverse as employment law, the law of death, criminal justice, Jewish law, human rights law and constitutional law. A variety of methodological approaches were also being taken, with doctrinal legal scholarship running alongside multidisciplinary work with religious studies, and socio-legal projects. Many of us worked as the sole academic focusing on law and religion issues in a law school, but there were also a number of clusters of scholars developing. As well as the established Centre at Cardiff – celebrating its tenth anniversary this year – research groups are developing at Bristol, Oxford Brookes and Canterbury.

Discussion then moved to the teaching of the subject in British and Northern Irish law schools, with scholars from Welsh, Scottish and English law schools contributing their experience. Many colleagues brought their insights to bear on the interaction with other subjects, such as public law, but a number of discrete modules existed or were being developed. Cardiff delivers not only its unique LLM in Canon Law but also a well-established undergraduate option, as do Newcastle and Bangor. Similar undergraduate options will be available from 2008 at Oxford Brookes and Canterbury. Considerable enthusiasm was expressed by other members for developing such options in their home institutions, but less for the lone voice supporting a compulsory module in all UK law degrees. To gain a more detailed picture of the teaching of law and religion, a questionnaire will be circulated to participants and beyond, and colleagues running courses at the moment will circulate details of their courses.

Doctoral work seems to be another growth area, with a number of participants basing current doctoral programmes squarely in the field. We agreed to compile a summary of ongoing doctoral projects in the area, which could also include undergraduate- and LLM-level dissertations. Perhaps more ambitiously, we also hope to run a conference at Oxford Brookes aimed specifically at PhD students.

After a lunch that no doubt involved as much useful networking as the rest of the day put together, we reconvened to discuss research. A central concern here was how to make sure that we knew of work in the field and of ongoing projects being carried out by other participants. Perhaps the number of revelations earlier in the day, as each person talked about their own research, had given this discussion particular bite. We agreed to create an electronic mailbase to circulate information on our work, celebrate new publications, publicise forthcoming events, etc. For supporters of face-to-face time, a one-day conference will be hosted by Cardiff in 2009, which will also include an opportunity for members of LARSN to meet, assess the success of initiatives agreed upon at the meeting, and plan for the future of the network.

The interaction of law and religion matters, and there have long been members of British law schools who have contributed to the understanding of the field – although sometimes not in frank terms. But there are more of us than ever before and the time is ripe to develop a community of scholars. LARSN now has a website (see http://www.law.cf.ac.uk/clr/networks/lrsn.html), a mailbase (law-religion-uk@jiscmail.ac.uk) and firm plans for the coming year, including more events. It stands an excellent chance of nurturing such a community, if it can bring the diverse strands together constructively. Are we united only by a factual nexus – Law and Religion as Sports Law – or by deeper, interlinked concerns – Law and Religion as Environmental Law? I think the latter.