ABSTRACT

The prohibition on discrimination on grounds of religion or belief has given rise to a number of decisions which demonstrate the scope for conflict between this and other protected grounds. Here I want to consider two of these cases and more broadly the justification for and effects of prohibiting discrimination on grounds of religion or belief. My purpose is to expose some of the problems generated by domestic discrimination legislation and to ask whether these are (a) inevitable as a result of Article 9 of the European Convention or (b) justified by wider arguments concerning the protection of ‘culture’ and/or the role of religion in the constitution of identity. Having concluded that neither is the case, I go on to propose an attenuated level of protection for religious minorities which finds its rationale in the amelioration of economic and social disadvantage which flows unjustifiably from actual or ascribed religious identity or affiliation.