Welcome
Law & Religion UK was conceived as a forum for the academically-rigorous exploration of the interactions between law and religion – broadly defined – together with the human rights issues associated with them. It is co-edited by Frank Cranmer and David Pocklington, both of whom are Honorary Research Fellows at the Centre for Law & Religion, Cardiff Law School, and have been posting on L&RUK since 2012.
The Editors are always interested in guest posts from colleagues in the field of law and religion. We also welcome pertinent comments on current developments that reflect the views and opinions of their respective authors and meet the General Conditions applying to the site. However, those that do not meet those criteria or which are otherwise unidentifiable are unlikely to be published, especially comments that are abusive or defamatory. For more information see our comments policy below.
Statistics
We started regular posting in June 2012 and our milestone 2.0 million page-views was achieved in January 2021. The site has over 900 subscribers and the L&RUK Twitter account Law & Religion UK @FCranmer has ~1,800 followers. Readership of the blog is issue driven, and we have an average of 700 page-views per day.
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- We will not publish comments that, in our opinion, are abusive, racist, homophobic, potentially defamatory or otherwise capable of offending the laws against hate speech – or common decency.
- Since L&RUK is intended as a blog for academic comment, those that add little to the academic debate on a particular issue are unlikely to be published.
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Frank Cranmer & David Pocklington
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Dear Mr. Pocklington,
I wonder whether you or any of your readers could help. I am a well retired lawyer, assisting my granddaughter in a claim for damages against the PCC and Incumbent of a CofE Church. In an extremely cold bout of weather in January of 1921 she slipped on black ice formed on a short flight of granite steps leading from the rear entrance to the church to the adjacent roadway, resulting in two fractures to her right arm and a split elbow. The Church maintains that it is not liable in negligence as the steps form part of the ‘closed’ churchyard and that, therefore, ss. 215(1) & (2) of the Local Government Act 1972 applies and the body responsible is the local Town Council. The Town Council are denying responsibility stating that their duty of maintenance does not cover the steps (only the monuments in the grounds) and keeping the grass cut and in a tidy condition. Indeed, s.215(1) of the Act clearly states that, in the circumstances, the Council in taking over the maintenance of the closed churchyard is only required to “maintain it by keeping it in decent order and the walls and fences in decent repair”. The Church Insurers, however, have ‘dug their feet in’ and strongly maintain that the Council is responsible and not their Insured. I have scoured the interned for any cases that may have defined the difference between a ‘churchyard’ and ‘church grounds’ and also as to the extent of a Council’s responsibility under s. 215(1) of the Act (i.e. whether it would extend to keeping granite steps to the rear entrance of the Church gritted, or otherwise safe, in freezing weather conditions). I am wondering, therefore, whether any of your prior articles, or case discussions have dealt with this, or with anything similar.
If my request is beyond the scope of your blog, I will, of course, fully understand.
Many thanks. Sincerely,
John Stacey-Hibbert, LLB, LLM.
Thank you for this further question, John. However, as I indicated on 28 February 2022, our Terms and Conditions indicate that we do not give advice on individual cases; furthermore neither Frank nor I are in practice. Regards, David Pocklington
Sorry to have bothered you, David, but many thanks anyway. John
No problem, John.
Hello, are you able to confirm if an deliberate unauthorised exhumation of cremated remains from a designated cemetery area is a criminal offence.
I would greatly appreciate your help.
Kindest regards,
Pearl Clow.
Under the Burial Act 1857, it is an offence for a body or any human remains which have been interred in a place of burial to be removed unless one of the conditions listed in subsection (2) is complied, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/20-21/81/section/25
Dear David,
I am a member of a protestant church in Somerset. As a landscape designer & former property solicitor, I’m helping to design and landscape the church grounds to create a welcoming environment for all visitors. I’d love to see it transform into a healing community space.
My proposal involves moving some headstones to the perimeter wall on site, but am unsure how to establish current ownership of the headstones.
The headstones are between 70 to 150 years old, most are illegible. I have found old Burial Records at the city library dating back to 1850. The church is no longer an active/registered grave site. There are almost certainly bodies beneath the headstones, but we will not disturb them (I have contacted the Ministry of Justice about this).
I’d be grateful if you could point me in the right direction re the headstones.
Many thanks,
Jason Loh
PgDip MCI(Hort) LLB LLM
Sorry: as a matter of policy we don’t give legal advice. We are not competent to do so, neither do we carry the necessary indemnity insurance.
If it’s a Church of England burial ground, I suggest you seek advice from the Diocesan Registrar, not least because you will almost certainly need a faculty to carry out the proposed works. If the burial ground belongs to one of the Free Churches, you should consult the denomination’s property officer.
Ok thank you Frank
I’ve been doing some catch-up reading of the blog, and am finding on my iPhone that the ‘Previous’ and ‘Next’ buttons do not work. They are fine on my laptop. is this just a quirk of the iPhone, do you know, or is there and issue with the mobile version of the blog?