Law and Religion

Law and Religion

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to understand how court decisions regarding religious rights changed after the introduction of the Human rights act 1998 in Britain, and to which extent does the ECHR guarantee to protect the interests of atheists. To begin with we will analyze how conditions were prior to the Human rights act 1998 in Great Britain.

Discussion

Presently our society has given ample human rights to protect a person's personal choices and safeguard what they believe in. However the condition wasn't always like this and people had no proper awareness regarding their human rights which lead to multiple issues and created chaos for not just the people but for the legal institutions as well. The Human Rights Act 1998 was a significant initiative taken by the British government to spread equality and justice for its people and it was through the introduction of this law that helped people understand their lawful rights regarding various aspects of life. Religion has always been a controversial aspect of law and understanding to which degree a person should be given liberty was constantly in question. Before the law was enforced religious matters were often subject to much deliberation.

Religious rights before the Human Rights Act 1998

There are various historical relations between religion and the states of Great Britain there are fundamentally there are 4 key phases that religion ad law underwent. Great Britain exclusively includes of England, Wales and Scotland as decreed by the Act of union between English and Scottish parliament in 1707.

The spiritual and Temporal Phase (1066-1530)

During this time period the common law practiced regarding law, which was originally from 3 sources the native and provincial laws of the Church in England, the Papal canon law of Rome and the Ius Commune of Western Christendom, The courts dealt with Temporal matters while the canon law courts dealt with spiritualism, however the scope was extremely narrow and people were not given any liberty regarding their religion.

Discrimination and intolerance (1530 - 1689

The liberation of the Church of England from foreign jurisdiction gave way to severe religious intolerance towards other religious groups, other religions suffered various legal issues and they were forced to attend church and those who failed to do so were penalized. Once the Monarchy in 1660 was restored further restrictions were placed on the other religious groups and even all the civil holders and the military officers had to participate in the Church there were no considerations made and under the Test Act 1673 and the Corporation Act 1661 attendance at any other religious assembly were strictly forbidden.

Religious Toleration (1689 - 2000)

After much protests against the conserved narrow scope of religion the protestants William and Mary lead to limit the toleration which paved way for the Toleration Act 1689 according to which it allowed people of other faith to meet in their places of worship however they were to meet with doors unlocked and they were required to present a notice to the Local Bishop of the ...