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Religion Law Commons

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Civil Rights and Discrimination

Neil J Foster

Selected Works

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Religion Law

Freedom Of Religion For Boarding House Owners Denied, Neil J. Foster Feb 2012

Freedom Of Religion For Boarding House Owners Denied, Neil J. Foster

Neil J Foster

Discusses the decision of the English Court of Appeal in Bull & Bull v Hall & Preddy [2012] EWCA Civ 83 (10 Feb 2012) that owners of a boarding house cannot refuse double bed accommodation to a same-sex couple, though they have refused such accommodation to heterosexual couples for many years.


Freedom Of Religion In Practice: Exemptions Under Anti-Discrimination Laws On The Basis Of Religion, Neil J. Foster Jun 2011

Freedom Of Religion In Practice: Exemptions Under Anti-Discrimination Laws On The Basis Of Religion, Neil J. Foster

Neil J Foster

Recognition of “human rights” often involves the need to balance one set of rights against another. While anti‐discrimination laws generally are designed to outlaw decision‐making on irrelevant grounds, recognition of “freedom of religion” (a clear human right acknowledged in the international covenants on the area) requires acknowledging that decision‐making in many areas on religious grounds is not irrelevant, and hence requires careful crafting of appropriate exemptions to otherwise blanket prohibitions against discrimination. But in many ways there has been a subtle shift in recent decades away from a fully‐orbed recognition of human rights, towards an absolutist prohibition of discrimination alone. …