Benson, Iain
Extraordinary Professor, Faculty of Law
University of the Free State
Bloemfontein, South Africa
iainbenson2@gmail.com
+1 647 647-0006
Dr. Prof. Benson is an academic, lecturer and practicing lawyer who works on constitutional law and human rights with particular focus on religious liberty, the nature of pluralism, multi-culturalism and relationships between law, religion and human rights. Dr. Benson was the first Executive Director of the Centre for Cultural Renewal (1993 - 2009). He was Senior Associate counsel to Miller Thomson LLP a large Canadian law firm (2009 - 2013). Dr. Benson was a member of the draft committee for the South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms. He was the invited rapporteur on Law and Religious Diversity in Canada and South Africa to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Vatican City in May 2011. He is an ongoing expert advisor to the South African Council for the Protection and Promotion of Religious Rights and Freedoms. His work towards an understanding of "secular" and "secularism" has been cited by the Constitutional Court of South Africa and the Supreme Court of Canada. Dr. Benson was retained by the Government of Canada to author material concerning religion and public policy as an aspect of Canadian multiculturalism. He was appointed one of ten inaugural directors of the Global Centre for Pluralism along with Kofi Annan and the Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson and chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan IV. He is currently Visiting Scholar at Massey College in the University of Toronto and Extraordinary Professor of Law at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein South Africa.
Areas of Interest
Human Rights
Pluralism and Multiculturalism
Religion and the Canadian Constitution
Religion and Government
Secular and Secularism
Truth and Reconcilation Commissions
Related materials
The Case of the Trinity Western University Law School
Who Divides? What Unites? and Who Decides? Pluralism and the Limits of Law
State-Imposed Ethics and Religious Teaching
... the Roman Catholic perspective following the Second Vatican Council
Human Rights and Religious Associations: Case Study of the Heinz v. Christian Horizons Decision?