Professor Mark Hill QC & Spencer Keen investigate a legal minefield
Last year was highly significant for the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/1660) (the Regulations). The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) and the higher courts began to explore some difficult issues that, until now, have merely basked in the detail of the Regulations or in arid discussion in academic legal journals.
The EAT has grappled with the breadth of the Regulations in determining which beliefs are worthy of protection: Nicholson v Grainger UKEAT/219/09 and Power v Greater Manchester Police UKEAT/0434/09: the Court of Appeal has considered whether a religious belief may constitute a conscientious objection to requirements of the workplace: Ladele v London Borough of Islington [2009] EWCA Civ 1357: and nine Supreme Court Justices have provided mutually contradictory analyses of race and religion in a school’s admissions policy: R (on the application of E) v Governing Body of JFS [2009] UKSC 15, [2009] All ER (D) 163 (Dec).
Nicholson v Grainger
Courts have been placed in the unenviable position of having to devise a practical test
