Vogel reports that in the 1970s a new "law and religion" approach has progressively built its own contribution to religious studies. Over a dozen scholarly organizations and committees were formed by 1983, and a scholarly quarterly, the Journal of Law and Religion first published that year and the Ecclesiastical Law Journal opened in 1999. Many departments and centers have been created around the world during the last decades. As of 2012, major Law and Religion organizations in the U.S. included 500 law professors, 450 political scientists, and specialists in numerous other fields such as history and religious studies. Between 1985 and 2010, the field saw the publication of some 750 books and 5000 scholarly articles.John Witte, "The Study of Law and Religion in the United States: An Interim Report," Ecclesiastical Law Journal (2012) 14#3 pp: 327-354. Scholars are not only focused on strictly legal issues about religious freedom or non establishment but also on the study of religions as they are qualified through judicial discourses or legal understanding on religious phenomena. Exponents look at canon law, natural law, and state law, often in comparative perspective.Norman Doe, Law and Religion in Europe: A Comparative Introduction (2011)W. Cole Durham, and Brett G. Scharffs, eds. Law and religion: national, international, and comparative perspectives (Aspen Pub, 2010). Specialists have explored themes in western history regarding Christianity and justice and mercy, rule and equity, discipline and love.John Witte Jr. and Frank S. Alexander, eds., Christianity and Law: An Introduction (Cambridge U.P. 2008) Common topics on interest include marriage and the family,John Witte Jr, From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition (1997) and human rights.John Witte, Jr., The Reformation of Rights: Law, Religion and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism (2008) Moving beyond Christianity, scholars have looked at law and religion interrelations in law and religion in the Muslim Middle East, and pagan Rome.Alan Watson, The state, law, and religion: pagan Rome (University of Georgia Press, 1992)
