Religion and law round-up – 2nd August

Not much hard law this week (apart from a case we can’t find) but quite a bit of speculation about an initiation rite for transgender people and a possible accidental ban on incense…

Autopsy and religion

Earlier this week, in the Administrative Court, Mitting J ruled in Charles Rotsztein v HM Senior Coroner for Inner London [2015] that where there was an “established religious tenet” against an invasive autopsy, it should be avoided so long as there was a “realistic possibility” that a non-invasive autopsy, such as a CT scan or blood culture, would establish cause of death. However, coroners must still be able to fulfil the legal obligation to establish cause of death to the best of their ability and the non-invasive procedures should be done “without imposing an additional cost burden on the coroner”.

The judgment was delivered orally. If and when we see a copy of the judgment we shall post a summary.

Incense as an illegal high?

We posted on the concern expressed by Baroness Hamwee in the recent House of Lords debate that one (presumably unintended) effect of the Psychoactive Substances Bill might be to make the use of incense in churches illegal. Continue reading