Last rites and human rights: funeral pyres and religious freedom in the United Kingdom

Cumper, P and Lewis, T ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3948-9961, 2010. Last rites and human rights: funeral pyres and religious freedom in the United Kingdom. Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 12 (2), pp. 131-151.

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Abstract

This article considers the litigation in Ghai v Newcastle City Council in which the legality of open air funeral pyres under the Cremation Act 1902, and under the right to freedom of religion and belief in article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, was considered. Ultimately the Court of Appeal held that open air funeral pyres within a walled enclosure were not unlawful. But at first instance the Administrative Court, which had assumed that domestic law prohibited such pyres, had held that such a ban would not breach article 9 since it was legitimate to prevent causing offence to the majority of the population. It is the approach of the Administrative Court to article 9 (which was not considered by the Court of Appeal) that forms the basis of the critical analysis in this article. In particular it is argued that the Administrative Court undervalued the right to freedom of religion and belief, as against the need to prevent offence to others, and adopted a stance which was overly deferential to Government and Parliament.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Ecclesiastical Law Journal
Creators:	Cumper, P. and Lewis, T.
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Date:	2010
Volume:	12
Number:	2
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Law School
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 10:54
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2017 13:44
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/19831

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