Taking Freedom of Conscience Seriously: Reflections on Ladele v United Kingdom
In Eweida and Others v United Kingdom (which included the decision in Ladele v UK) the European Court of Human Rights brought about a significant change in its jurisprudence in relation to the manifestation of religion and belief at work. The most controversial aspect of its decision related to the Court's upholding of the right of employers to require employees to abide by non-discrimination policies in relation to sexual orientation that require such employees to act in violation of their religious conscience, even where an exemption from the relevant policy would not result in deprivation of services to any individual. This paper will suggest that the extension of anti-discrimination norms does pose problems in relation to the protection of conscience and indeed the public-private boundary that underpins the separation of religion and state in secular democracies. However, the arguments for selective exemption of religious individuals from anti-discrimination norms are inconsistent with basic norms of fairness and equality and cannot be granted without calling broader anti-discrimination norms into question.