This book seeks to set the law relating to the freedom of religious minorities in a historical and political context. It provides an introduction to relevant aspects of the Human Rights Act 1998 and addresses the balance of competing interests where religious rights are concerned. It then groups discussion of the law on a range of specific topics under the four headings of education, employment, immigration and asylum and planning, and prisons and health and safety. The author's attempt at a philosophical and sociological approach to the subject so as to conceptualise and introduce the issues somewhat jarred; the analysis here seems to be pitched at a very general level. For example, employment ‘plays a … general role in the fulfilment and development of the individual and is of key importance for society’ (p 127) and ‘[m]oreover, feelings of exclusion are heightened by the increasing restrictions on civil liberties, in particular for the Muslim population, under the guise of anti-terrorism measures’(p 5). These sentiments expressed in passing or as a generalised introduction to a subject matter illuminate the preconceptions of the author in a particularly complex field.

If this is a book aimed at practitioners, it seems ‘law lite’ and ‘religious liberty law very lite’. It lacks a detailed analysis of the principles of religious liberty law and it lacks a comprehensive framework in which to assess the relationship of the state to religion and to types of religion. Occasionally, there is a case or idea of interest, such as the use of the principle of ‘trust and confidence’ in employment law as a means of applying religious considerations to employees, in addition to using section 3 of the ECHR to ‘read in’ Convention Rights (p 140); but this is only occasional. The setting of culture by Ms Knights as discriminative of religion is superficially true, but religion is a facet of culture and ‘socio-cultural’ norms of a society can be the glue for human interaction. Such issues are complex and problematic, but this book does not get below the surface. Those looking for a fuller treatment would do well to turn to Professors Rex Adhar and Ian Leigh's book Religious Freedom in the Liberal State, which is a ‘tour de force’ towering over more limited treatments of the subject.Footnote ¹

However, this book is not without its uses: for the rookie barrister or the practitioner who has an occasional case engaging Article 9 of the Convention, it would provide a quick overview of the case law and issues. It gives useful information on the basics of the core principles of Human Rights Law and Discrimination Law and is a good general introduction to the law of religious liberty. The author clearly has a good understanding of discrimination law (race and sex), and that gives a more traditional approach to the field of discrimination and religious rights. The book is useful in that it applies the principles of these areas of law (which have become very specialised) to issues of religious liberty, although the concept of discrimination is defective in relation to religious rights (which are based on accommodation). A ‘levelling down’ of rights (based on non-discrimination) can have a disproportionate effect on religious practice; why this is the case is not addressed.

There are good details of cases in terms of the basic decisions, principles and general approaches by the courts under sections 3 and 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998, although often there is simply a list of cases that are relevant to the subject (without critical analysis of many of the decisions). However, these provide a useful means of locating the judgments. Also, the footnoting is excellent, and enables a reader to assess cases, parliamentary reports, reports by relevant organisations and statistical evidence. Ms Knights has put in valuable work in drawing these sources together for those who are prepared to follow them up with their personal research.