Category Archives: Legal Affairs

Published on
25 May 2013

Sex, Lords, and Church Weddings: The Legal Labyrinth of Gay Marriage

Posted in Legal Affairs, Marriage & Family, Same-Sex Marriage

From a Guest Blogger: In the midst of the ongoing gay marriage debate, the Government has faced calls to extend civil partnerships to heterosexual couples. After all, isn’t banning heterosexual couples from civil partnerships just as discriminatory as banning gay couples from marrying? The Guardian reports that one minister was confronted about the situation of […]

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Published on
3 May 2012

Faith in the Public Square

Posted in Christianity, Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Legal Affairs, Public Policy, Religion

From a guest blogger: Regular readers of this blog will have seen posts over the last year in response to the Government’s decision to hold a consultation on whether to extend marriage to same-sex couples, as well as on developments in marriage law elsewhere. Frequently debate over redefining marriage has produced conflict between mainstream religious […]

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Published on
7 March 2012

A Case for Repeal of the Abortion Act?

Posted in Abortion, British Politics, Human Life, Legal Affairs, Religion, Social Commentary

A nation is governed –and partly defined — by the rules and regulations on its statute book. Laws are supposed to regulate so as to ensure fairness and justice, as well as to prohibit behaviours deemed contrary to the good of society. They have a purpose: development and protection of the common good within the […]

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Published on
18 January 2012

The Unacceptability of ‘Quality of Life’

Posted in Euthanasia, Human Life, Legal Affairs, Public Policy

The writer’s attention has recently been drawn to an address made by Cardinal Galen, Bishop of Munster between 1933 and 1946, on the topic of euthanasia. He was a trenchant critic of many Nazi policies, not least those towards the disabled whom the regime classified as ‘unproductive members of society’. Those resident in care homes […]

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Published on
21 September 2011

Planning Matters: The Need for a Rethink

Posted in British Politics, Built Environment, Ethics in Business, Human Life, Legal Affairs, Public Policy, Social Commentary

The Government is currently undertaking a consultation about the National Policy Framework for house-building. The aim is to simplify the policies binding local councils and house-builders. The responses of groups such as the National Trust, Woodland Trust and Campaign for the Protection of Rural England have – predictably – been negative. The National Trust is […]

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Published on
28 March 2011

Christianity, the Crucifix, and European Values

Posted in Christianity, Conscience, Education, Europe, Human Rights, Legal Affairs, Liberty, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy, Religion, Social Commentary

It was with surprise that many people heard last week of the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), by a majority of 15-2, to overturn its own much-criticised decision in 2009 to forbid the display of crucifixes in Italian schoolrooms. Perhaps it would be kinder not to point out to the hapless […]

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Published on
8 March 2011

Discrimination = Bigotry?

Posted in Ethics in Business, Europe, Human Rights, Legal Affairs, Public Policy, Social Commentary

From a guest blogger: If I were to describe a friend as possessed of ‘discriminating taste’ many would think I had proffered a compliment. Images of a man who knows his Virgil from his Wagner come to mind, not to mention the knowledge that ‘V’ and ‘W’ in those names should be pronounced in the […]

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Published on
4 March 2011

Should Britain Invade Libya?

Posted in Africa, Human Rights, Legal Affairs, Middle East, Military Ethics, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy, World Affairs

The title I have chosen is somewhat disingenuous. I do not support armed intervention in Libya, and so my intention in blogging on this subject is not to voice support for military action. Neither, however, do I oppose it. But the suggestion that the West might use force in the Arab world has once again […]

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