PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 15, 2004

In October 2004, the China Charity Federation organized a comparative seminar on international charity law. Co-organizers included ICNL, the Brigham Young University Law School, General Motors Corporation China, and LDS Charities. The principal sponsors were the Ford Foundation and the Aga Khan Development Network, France. The purpose of the Conference was to discuss the legal structures that govern the establishment and operation of charitable organizations in a number of major representative countries. The conference received high-level governmental backing in China, and follow-up activities are being developed.

The seminar brought together an impressive array of global civil society experts from Australia, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, the UK, the US, and elsewhere. We invite you to read reports prepared by these experts by clicking on the following links.

• The Central and Eastern European Overview
• The Comparative Study of Laws Governing Charitable Organizations in the NIS (Newly Independent States / Former Soviet Union)
• The UK Country Paper
• The Germany Country Report
• The Australian Country Report by Myles McGregor-Lowndes
• The South Africa Paper by Tessa Brewis
• Shams Vellani’s Paper on Philanthropy in Islam
• Tymen van der Ploeg’s Paper on the Netherlands
• US Charity Law
• Comparative Regulation/Accountability: JAPAN
• Comparative Overview II: JAPAN
• Fries Civil Society Institutions in Western Society