Religious Liberty in British Courts: A Critique and Some Guidance
Robin Hopkins and Can V. Yeginsu, 49 Harv. Int’l L.J. Online 28 (2008)
For centuries, religious liberty in Britain existed as a broad-ranging but principally negative freedom at common law. Individuals were permitted to do as they pleased in matters of faith, unless the law stated otherwise.[1] Religious liberty, thus conceived, was more passive toleration of religion than any active promotion of religious freedom as a fundamental right. All that changed on October 2, 2000 when the Human Rights Act 1998 (‘HRA’) – the United Kingdom’s de facto Bill of Rights – came into full force and brought with it Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights (‘ECHR’).
