Epp Buckingham, Janet --- "Trinity Western University’s law school: reconciling rights" [2018] ELECD 805; in Ahdar, Rex (ed), "Research Handbook on Law and Religion" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 420

Book Title: Research Handbook on Law and Religion

Editor(s): Ahdar, Rex

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781788112468

Section: Chapter 20

Section Title: Trinity Western University’s law school: reconciling rights

Author(s): Epp Buckingham, Janet

Number of pages: 22

Abstract/Description:

Trinity Western University, a private, Christian university in British Columbia, Canada, has been embroiled in legal cases over its proposal to establish a law school. The university requires its students to sign a code of conduct, which commits them to abstain from sexual intimacy outside of marriage between a man and a woman. The university initially obtained requisite approvals from regulatory bodies, but several provincial law societies, the professional regulators, refused to allow graduates to be called to the bar, citing this requirement as a discriminatory admissions policy. The university challenged this in court, arguing that it violates religious freedom, both of the university and its students. The cases require the courts to reconcile rights to religious freedom with equality rights of LGB persons, both of which are protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.