The public regulation of land use and the exercise of religious freedom will be debated in a conference entitled " Cities and Places of Worship" , to be held on 23 and 24 March in the Antoni Caparrós Auditorium at the Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB, Barcelona Science Park). During this conference, specialists in public, administrative, and ecclesiastical law, in addition to anthropologists, and government representatives dealing with urban planning, will analyse current legislation, present the experiences of other countries and propose legislative changes to ensure social cohesion.

Organized by the Institute for Public Law (IDP) of the Universitat de Barcelona (UB, University of Barcelona), located at the PCB, the conference will kick off with presentations by Antoni P. Fogué, delegate president of the Local Government Department of the Diputació de Barcelona; Juli Ponce, professor of Administrative Law at the UB and member of the IDP; and Àlex Seglers, associate professor of Ecclesiastical Law at the UAB and UOC. Later, participants will address issues such as the legal treatment of places of religious worship, Muslim oratories in Catalonia, positive laicism and urban planning, and the right to public space and religious use of the same, among other topics. In this regard, the conference will also share the experiences of countries such as the United States, France and Italy.

On Friday 24 March the programme includes a round table session which will include Mohamed Zain, president of the Maresme Association of Islamic Culture; José María Contreras, full professor of ecclesiastical law and director of the Fundación Pluralismo y Convivencia; and Jordi Moreras, anthropologist. The conference will close will presentations by Oriol Nel·lo, secretary for Urban Planning from the Dept. of Urban Planning and Infrastructure of the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya), and professor Juli Ponce, also director of the conference.