The Center’s work includes the Latin American and Caribbean Religious Freedom Observatory, which consists of the permanent monitoring of the religious freedom situation in the region. It gathers legal updates (laws, bills, decrees, rulings, etc.), news, and institutional information regarding religious freedom and the relations between the State and religious organizations throughout the region.
As a means of dissemination and community engagement, the Observatory features the Legal Bulletin, a monthly publication disseminating legal news related to religious freedom and religious organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is distributed monthly via digital channels, free of charge, to over 2,100 subscribers in Chile and abroad, 40% of whom are academics.
Furthermore, it is essential to foster a critical mass within academia that contributes to generating specialized, scientific doctrine to serve as an input for the work of judges and legislators. To this end, the Center publishes the Latin American Journal of Law and Religion, which aims to establish itself as a periodic forum for knowledge and intellectual exchange regarding the legal specialty of law and religion; it is a scientific, fully digital publication—both in its distribution and its management system (article submission, peer review, communication with readers and authors, etc.)—offering free open access, double-blind peer review, and biannual periodicity.
Research at the Center addresses religious freedom from a dual dimension: the promotion of the fundamental right to religious freedom, which pertains to the State, and a dimension of prevention, which pertains to religious entities.
The Center’s interests include matters such as: spiritual assistance in specialized facilities, such as the armed forces, hospitals, and prisons; religion and education; religious instruction in public schools; student admission based on educational projects; conscientious objection; religion and labor law; religious cultural heritage; recognition of religious symbols; the autonomy and internal self-organization of churches and religiously oriented social organizations (schools, hospitals, etc.); the legal status of religious communities; the legal status of ministers of religion; recognition of acts of worship; financing of religious denominations; the study and critical analysis of Ecclesiastical Law (legal norms issued by the State referring to the religious phenomenon); agreements between the State and religious denominations; among others.
