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Monday, January 14, 2013, 11:20 AM

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has announced that it will issue a ruling tomorrow in Eweida and Others v. United Kingdom. As I wrote back in September, when the cases were argued before the Court, the cases could have a significant impact on religious freedom in Europe:

The applicants in these cases argue that UK courts failed to protect their [rights under the European Convention on Human Rights] by allowing their employers to discipline them for practicing Christianity. Chaplin, a nurse, and Eweida, a British Airways employee, were forbidden by their employers from wearing cross necklaces at work. Ladele, a public registrar, lost her job when she declined, on the ground of religious conviction, to register same-sex civil partnerships. McFarlane, a psychotherapist, lost his job when he expressed doubts as a Christian about the morality of homosexual conduct.

I’ll offer an analysis of the Court’s ruling later in the week.

Mark Movsesian is Director of the Center for Law and Religion at St. John’s University.

2 Comments

    David Nickol
    January 15th, 2013 | 7:16 pm

    Here is the Reuters account of the ruling, titled European court rejects three UK faith bias complaints. The headline does not reflect the fact that there was a fourth case that was won: “In the fourth case in the verdict, a British Airways clerk suspended for wearing a cross won her appeal and was awarded damages.”

    Randy McDonald
    January 16th, 2013 | 6:09 pm

    The judgements do not sound very surprising. The one of the four whose religious convictions didn’t threaten the rights of other people won her case; the other three, whose religious convictions did, lost theirs.

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