The International Journal
of Not-for-Profit Law

Volume 6, Issue 1, September 2003

Welcome to the fifth-anniversary issue of the International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law. After a short hiatus, we are delighted to debut a new format along with several new contributors and new topics.

This issue introduces IJNL’s thematic focus. For a special section on religion and NGOs, W. Cole Durham, Jr. was the natural choice to be guest editor: he is Gates University Professor of Law at Brigham Young University and Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (as well as Vice Chair of IJNL’s parent organization, the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law). Working with his colleague Elizabeth A. Sewell, Cole helped us assemble this special section, featuring articles on current legal issues in Russia, Chile, Turkey, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere. Cole and Elizabeth provide an introductory overview here.

Our special section also includes an intensely personal essay. Through the lens of her Catholic faith, Shirley Williams, Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the British House of Lords, reflects on prospects for a healthier civil society and a better world. The essay reminds us that faith and politics interact not just at the macro level of governments and institutions, but at the micro level as well, in the minds and hearts of individual politicians. And it exemplifies IJNL’s openness to a wide range of voices.

The philanthropic community is closely monitoring a bill in the U.S. Congress that would alter American foundations’ pay-out requirement. We provide a timely explanation of what’s at stake–and, notwithstanding some cries of alarm, what’s not–from Robert O. Bothwell, Principal of Visions Realized, President Emeritus of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, and a member of the ICNL Advisory Council.

This IJNL also includes two articles that recently appeared in SEAL, the European Foundation Center’s journal of social economy and the law. ICNL Senior Vice President Douglas Rutzen serves on the SEAL Advisory Board, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with that important journal.

Longtime readers of IJNL may notice something missing: case notes and country reports. For these summaries to be as useful as possible, we believe, they must be prompt and up to date. Consequently, they will appear henceforth on the ICNL website and will soon be available by email.

Principal support for IJNL is provided by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. In addition, a generous grant from the Ford Foundation has enabled ICNL to undertake an in-depth evaluation of IJNL and the other elements of its Internet Services Program. Finally, we gratefully acknowledge the assistance of ICNL Advisory Council members, as well as the contributions of our guest editors and authors.

Stephen Bates
Editor
International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law
sbates@icnl.org

ICNL is grateful to those who are supporting or who have supported this publication in the past, including the United States Agency for International Development, the Catholic University of America, the World Bank, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Wallace Global Fund, the Helen Bader Foundation, the Compton Foundation, the American Express Foundation, the AT&T Foundation, the GE Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alcoa Foundation, the Chevron Corporation, the Counterpart Foundation, the Aga Khan Foundation, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, the Asian Development Bank, and the Eurasia Foundation.