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Trinity Western was probably the main news of the week, but the likely abolition of blasphemy in Ireland may prove of wider importance in the longer term.
Trinity Western
On Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down two judgments in the long-running saga of Trinity Western Law School; Trinity Western lost in both of them and we noted them, briefly, here . Given that they will be scrutinised and dissected at great length by Canadian academics – and others – far better qualified than we are to assess their likely future impact, we aim to say no more on the subject.
Ireland and blasphemy
Part of Article 40.6.1 of the Constitution of Ireland states that “The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.” Readers may recall that during its committee stage in 2009, the then Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, introduced an amendment to what became the Defamation Act 2009 creating a new indictable offence of “publication or utterance of blasphemous matter” with a maximum fine of €25,000. The then President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, convened the Council of State to discuss whether the Bill should be referred to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality but, in the end, decided not to do so. The Act came into force on 1 January 2010.
RTÉ now reports that the Government has approved the holding of a referendum to remove the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution. It is expected to take place in October, possibly on the same day as the Presidential election.
Geneva and laïcité
On 26 April 26, the Grand Council of the Canton of Geneva adopted draft law 11764 on the laïcité of the Canton. A working group was established in 2013 to study the scope of Article 3 of the Geneva Constitution of 14 October 2012 and, after consultation with interested parties, the Conseil d’Etat sent a draft bill to the Grand Council in November 2015. After two years of discussions in the Human Rights Commission, a report on the […]