Freedom of belief, the right to withdrawal and Christian religious education in Northern Ireland

Parents of a seven-year-old child (JR87) in Northern Ireland took legal action against the Department of Education, arguing that the school’s religious education, including Christian collective worship during assemblies and a compulsory ‘Core Syllabus for Religious Education (RE)’ devised by Christian denominations, undermined their choice to raise their daughter in a non-religious way. Under judicial review, Justice Colton concluded that the laws on Collective Worship and RE breached European Human Rights articles, specifically Article 2 of the First Protocol ECHR read with Article 9 ECHR. Further, the RE syllabus was judged not to be compliant with the ‘objective, critical and plural’ standards of the European Court of Human Rights. On appeal, however, the court found that the parental right of withdrawal meant that the rights of the parents and child had not been breached. Nonetheless, the appeal judges agreed with the original critique of the syllabus. With consideration of similar European cases and, drawing on Benhabib’s concept of ‘jurisgenerative power’, we investigate the dominant narratives prominent in news media reports in the case of JR87. In conclusion, we argue that, in light of the legal judgements, pressure for change will continue and further ‘democratic iterations’ are likely to emerge.