The Manifestation Test

Abstract

In the UK the law of human rights centres on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Within the ECHR our focus is on Article 9(1), which provides the qualified right to manifest one's religion or belief. What does 'manifest' mean? The Courts have ruled that, while not every action 'motivated or inspired by' a religion or belief thereby manifests it, one that is 'intimately linked to' or 'directly expresses' a religion or belief does manifest it. But what do these relations come to? The Courts have given only a set of examples. This chapter will examine various different attempts to draw from these examples a 'test' that will tell, for any given action and belief, whether or not that action manifests that belief.