Equality and Religious Liberty: Oppressing Conscientious Diversity in England
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2016
Abstract
This chapter details a recent string of cases in UK courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that sought to balance competing rights to religious freedom and non-discrimination (equality). It argues that efforts to prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation have instead resulted in wrongful discrimination against religious persons. The UK and European courts, it maintains, have failed to develop a reasonable doctrine of accommodation for individuals who make conscientious religious objections to generally applicable (typically, anti-discrimination) laws. Instead, they have tended to levy disproportionate restrictions against religious freedoms, such as when the UK Supreme Court held that the owners and operators of a hotel could not, for religious reasons, deny a double room to a homosexual couple, even when this rule applied to all unmarried couples.
Recommended Citation
Finnis, John M., "Equality and Religious Liberty: Oppressing Conscientious Diversity in England" (2016). Book Chapters. 72.
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/book_chapters/72
Publication Information
in Religious Freedom and Gay Rights: Emerging Conflicts in the United States and Europe 21 (Timothy Shah, Thomas Farr, & Jack Friedman eds., 2016).
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