Law symposium explores non-state governance: Hamas to FLDS ? Groups pose growing challenges to governments

Salt Lake City, USA - University of Utah legal scholars on Friday host a major all-day symposium that explores the role of non-state actors in governing societies.

"It address issues that transcend the traditional notion of the state-state relationship and the state-individual relationship. Non-state governance is the relationship between an individual and a group, such as FLDS, the Catholic Church or Hamas," said organizer Amos Guiora, a law professor with expertise in security issues. "How does the state protect the individual in an unprotected community. It's a huge balancing question here. Individuals are free to associate, but if an internal community is harming a member who does he or she turn to?"

Joining Amos, will be U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Michael McConnell, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, U. President Michael Young, historian Bob Goldberg, and several law professors including Hiram Chodosh, dean of the U.'s Quinney College of Law.

Panels will address the definition of non-state governance; international contexts; religion; and state responsibilities.

"Almost every country in the world contains sub-communities with contrasting social practices, religious beliefs, or ideological values," Chodosh said. "The isolation or interaction with such local communities poses a set of profound dilemmas for state actors: whether to leave people alone to live their lives as they choose, even when they are perceived to be in violation of state law, or to intervene, even if only to determine the extent of alleged illegal behavior."

The event starts at 8:15 a.m. in the law school's Sutherland Moot Court Room, 332 S. 1400 East. The public is invited, although a $75 donation is requested, but not required. For more information, see www.law.utah.edu.