Law and religion round-up – 30th October

The McArthurs & Ashers Baking lost their appeal, the Northern Ireland High Court rejected a challenge to Brexit, the Vatican issued an instruction on what to do with cremated remains – and Hill Ch was rightly scathing about sloppy faculty applications…

The Great Ulster Bake-off

Much the biggest news of the week was the judgment of the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal in Lee v McArthur & Ors [2016] NICA 29. The Court rejected the appeal of Colin and Karen McArthur and Ashers Baking against the ruling in the county court that they had discriminated directly against Gareth Lee on grounds of sexual orientation by refusing to bake him a cake with a slogan supporting same-sex marriage.

The judgment has attracted a variety of comments, most, but not all of it critical – Continue reading