Religion and law round-up – 5th July

A fairly quiet week in which we were trying to do our day-jobs while Laudato si’ and Obergefell v Hodges continued to dominate the religion law headlines

In the courts

In Congregation of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth & Anor, for Judicial Review [2015] CSOH 87 Lord Woolman rejected a challenged to the appointment of Ms Susan O’Brien QC to chair the forthcoming inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 into historic child abuse in Scotland. The petitioners alleged apparent bias and that she had had “a close association with an interested party” to the Inquiry, contrary to s 9 (1) of the Act: Lord Woolman was unconvinced.

In St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust v P & Anor [2015] EWCOP 42 the Court of Protection considered and overruled an application by the NHS Trust “to discontinue life sustaining treatment” for a devout Muslim who had been severely brain-damaged after a massive heart-attack in November 2014.

We will be posting full notes on the two cases in the coming week.

“Freedom of Panorama” and the European Parliament

Never heard of Freedom of Panorama? Never heard of the Pirate Party? Nor had we – but you’re about to. Continue reading