On Wednesday, March 13, Rebecca French, Professor of Law at the University at Buffalo School of Law, will give a lecture entitled “Why Buddhism and Law Has Been Excluded from the Canon” as the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law’s  21st annual McElroy Lecture on Law and Religion.

The lecture will explore why the discipline of Buddhism and Law has never been accepted in the West as a type of Religion and Law, despite the fact that the Buddha inspired a law code that has been called the founding charter of Buddhism. French will discuss this phenomenon against the background of Buddhist history, early Christianity and the dominance of the Holy Roman Empire as a model of state and religious law. She will also explore the role of colonialism in excluding Buddhism and Law from the canon of comparative religious law.