The conference was co-organized and hosted by Professor Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University and recently appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). In his paper, entitled ‘The State, Civil Society and Religious Freedom’, Hans-Martien stressed the importance of the collective and institutional dimensions of the right to freedom of religion and belief, a pressing topic in the case law of both the European Court of Human Rights and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last April he had already presented a paper on ‘Joseph H.H. Weiler’s Approach to the Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union’ during a conference on ‘Neo-Calvinism and Democracy’ at Princeton University (USA).