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The cat says…thou shalt not blaspheme!

06 December 2018 / Athelstane Aamodt
Issue: 7820 / Categories: Features , Defamation , Human rights
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Athelstane Aamodt explores recent examples of blasphemy law in action & the human rights conflicts that arose

  • Discusses recent, high-profile blasphemy cases.
  • Looks at underlying human rights conflicts, relevant European Convention articles, serious harm and the Digital Single Market.

The law of blasphemy has been in the news a great deal recently. At the end of October the Republic of Ireland voted in a referendum to repeal the country’s blasphemy law (contained in s 36 of the Defamation Act 2009), the existence of which became something of a cause celebre when the comedian Stephen Fry in 2017 referred to God as a ‘maniac’ on Irish television prompting an investigation by Irish police. There has also been the recent case of Asia Bibi, a Christian Pakistani woman who has spent the last eight years on death row in Pakistan but whose conviction was quashed by the Pakistani Supreme Court last month. Laws against blasphemy might seem like a vestige of another time, but according to a report of the US Commission

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NEWS
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
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Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
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