Law and Religion Scholars Network
2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1990s 1980s 1970sCase Database - 1980s
This list includes significant judgments delivered in the 1980s.
United Kingdom
BRENTNALL v FREE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF SCOTLAND 1986 SLT 470 CS (IH): suspension of the appellant from ministry for contumacy sine die was null and void as contrary to natural justice: ‘Natural justice has a number of facets, but it certainly includes the principle that a decision should not be taken against a party without that party having a fair opportunity to know what the case against him is and a fair opportunity to deal with the case… The test is not, has an unjust result been reached? but, was there an opportunity afforded for injustice to be done? If so, the decision cannot stand’.
BUCHAN v BRODIE 1984 CS (OH) unreported (15 August 1984): though the Judicial Commission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland had been inquorate when it deliberated on the petitioner’s appeal in a disciplinary case, and though the General Assembly had declared the earlier proceedings void and remitted the case to the Judicial Commission for rehearing, when the petitioner sought interim interdict to prevent the Commission from proceeding (on the grounds that those members who had sat on the earlier appeal had already made up their minds and that it was contrary to natural justice that they should rehear it) the Lord Ordinary refused to interfere.
MANDLA v DOWELL LEE [1982] UKHL 7 (24 March 1982): Sikhs are a racial group for the purposes of the Race Relations Act 1976 and a rule forbidding the wearing of turbans by school pupils could not, therefore, be upheld because it was it not justifiable in all circumstances ‘irrespective of the colour, race, nationality or ethnic or national origins’ of the person to whom it was applied ‘without regard to the ethnic origins of that person’ (per L Fraser of Tullybelton).
Europe
CAMPBELL AND COSANS v UNITED KINGDOM [1982] ECtHR (Nos. 7511/76 & 7743/76) (25 February 1982): where parents objected to corporal punishment at their children’s schools on the grounds that it was contrary to their philosophical convictions, the Court took the view that those convictions had to ‘attain a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance’ in order to engage the ECHR: in the instant case, the duty to respect those convictions could not be overridden by the alleged necessity of striking a balance between the conflicting views involved, nor was the Government’s policy to move gradually towards the abolition of corporal punishment in itself sufficient to comply with that duty: though it was the unanimous view of the Court there had been no violation of Article 3 (inhuman or degrading treatment), it was held by 6 votes to 1 that there had been a breach of Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 (education).
LARSN Case Database
2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1990s 1980s 1970s