Richard Wilkins (law)

Richard Wilkins is a major proponant of international recognition for the family and the traditional marriage movement. He is a law professor at the J. Reuben Clark Law School which is part of Brigham Young University (BYU). He also serves as the director of the World Family Policy Center at BYU which is affiliated with the Clark Law School and the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies. He was an assistant to the solicitor general of the United States in the 1980s. [cite book |title=Between law & politics |last=Pacelle |first=Richard L. |year=2003 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=1585442348 |pages=p. 274 |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_LDMxF_YmikC&pg=PA274&dq=%22Richard+Wilkins%22+%2B%22solicitor+general%22&num=100&sig=Mi_1alAibAFKUyrte0pTEGTzdZI |accessdate=2008-05-09]

Wilkins is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served a mission for the church in Italy in the 1970s. [Esther Rasband and Richard Wilkins. "A Sacred Duty". (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1999) p. 19]

Wilkins received a Joseph Fielding Smith scholarship to BYU. He graduated at the top of his class in the BYU School of Fine Arts and Communication. He earned his bachelors degree in journalism. As a student at Clark Law School he was the top of his class and was the editor of the Brigham Young University law review. He then worked as a law clerk for Robert A. Ainsworth. [http://www.worldfamilypolicy.org/Attached%20Files/Wilkins.pdf]

Wilkins was the Assistant Solicitor General under Rex E. Lee. He wrote the brief that Lee used to argue the government case in Akron Center for Reproductive Health v. The State of Ohio. [Rasband and Wilkins. "Sacred Duty". p. 3] He also draft the legislation regulating abortion passed by the Utah legislature in the early 1990s. [Rasband and Wilkins. "Sacred Duty", p. 4]

As early as 1978 Wilkins wrote a paper on marriage law in Italy. [http://0-firstsearch.oclc.org.elibrary.mel.org/WebZ/FSFETCH?fetchtype=fullrecord:sessionid=fsapp5-46363-fhwvi7d8-lj1va2:entitypagenum=28:0:recno=43:resultset=3:format=FI:next=html/record.html:bad=error/badfetch.html:entitytoprecno=43:entitycurrecno=43:numrecs=1] . However Prior to the mid-1990s Wilkins focused much of his work on land issues, such as public domain. [http://0-firstsearch.oclc.org.elibrary.mel.org/WebZ/FSFETCH?fetchtype=fullrecord:sessionid=fsapp5-46363-fhwvi7d8-lj1va2:entitypagenum=28:0:recno=42:resultset=3:format=FI:next=html/record.html:bad=error/badfetch.html:entitytoprecno=42:entitycurrecno=42:numrecs=1]

In 1996 Wilkins went to an international conference on the family at Istanbul, where he delivered a paper on the inportance of language in UN policy statements. [ [http://magazine.byu.edu/g/?act=view&a=394 Richard G. Wilkins: Defending the Family ] ] Wilkins has written a book with Esther Rasband about his work at the Istanbu Conference. [ISBN=1570086877]

Wilkins is the director of the Wolrd Family Policy Center at BYU. He is also the founder of Defend Marriage a group with the goal f defending marriage in the political arena. [ [http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ideas/040213brink.html author bio connected with an article in Meridian Magazine] ] He was a member of the organizing commitee for the UN conference on the family held in Doha, Qatar.

In July 2005 Wilkins participated in the world family policy forum held in Provo, Utah. ["LDS Church News", July 23rd, 2005]

Wilkins has written seeral articles and books on international law, the definition of the family, laws on abortion and other related topics. [ [http://lawlib.byu.edu/bibliography.aspx?id=2376 Howard W. Hunter Law Library – Faculty Bibliography Page ] ] He also wrote a piece for "Marriage and Same Sex Unions a Debate" by Lynn D. Wardle. [http://books.google.com/books?id=HYfdMZEKIp4C&pg=PA221&lpg=PA221&dq=Richard+Wilkins&source=web&ots=OOVcI67QsS&sig=BryhAcSzbHKLuxslFZWRZolG5xs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result]

At the time he went to Istanbul Wilkins was serving as an LDS Bishop in a ward in Provo. [Rasband and Wilkins. "Sacred Duty", p. 1]

Wilkins is attacked by Jack Huberman for being willing to work with fundamentalist Muslims to advance his goals of defending the traditional family and stopping its destruction by government redefinition and the denial of parental rights. [ [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-huberman/screwing-up-america-rich_b_26069.html Jack Huberman: Screwing Up America: Richard Wilkins and the Mormon-Evangelical-Islamo-Fascist Axis of Extreme Evil ] ]

Wilkins and his wife Melany have four children.

References

External links

* [http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=1699 BYU devotional on defending the traditional family]
* [http://lawlib.byu.edu/bibliography.aspx?id=2376 Bibliography of works by Wilkins]