Professor Julian Rivers, Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Bristol, will deliver the 2018 Church of Ireland Theological Lecture at Queen’s.

This year’s Church of Ireland Theological lecture at Queen’s will be delivered by Professor Julian Rivers, Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Bristol.

The lecture will be held in Queen’s University’s Riddel Hall on Tuesday March 20 at 6pm.

Professor Rivers is an expert in the field of religion and law, having written and spoken extensively on the increasing number of issues pertinent to people of faith that interface, and at times may conflict with, the interests of secular law.

To that end, he will be lecturing on, ‘Religion, Equality and the Constitution,’ considering subjects extremely current to UK society, and bringing clarity as to the legal aspects of familiar topical questions. 

Professor Rivers writes: “In this lecture I will consider examples of new legal tensions between religion and equality. When are we right to insist on the requirements of equality even in the face of deeply-held moral or social convictions to the contrary? When can the claims of religion justify a departure from principles of equality? If equality has, in some sense, become a fundamental constitutional requirement, what does this ‘equality’ mean and require of us? And if there is a balance to be struck, is the law helping us to get that balance right?”

Tickets are free but those planning to attend are asked to register in advance. Follow the web link below.

Professor Rivers will introduce his talk as follows:

• ‘In recent years, religious individuals and groups have been found on a number of occasions to have acted in breach of new legal obligations designed to secure equal treatment for all. A Jewish school is told that it cannot select pupils according to an orthodox test of Jewish identity; Christian hoteliers are fined for refusing a room to a same-sex couple; an Islamic school is held to have acted unlawfully in segregating boys and girls. In this lecture I will consider these, and other, examples of new legal tensions between religion and equality. When are we right to insist on the requirements of equality even in the face of deeply-held moral or social convictions to the contrary? When can the claims of religion justify a departure from principles of equality? If equality has, in some sense, become a fundamental constitutional requirement, what does this ‘equality’ mean and require of us? And if there is a balance to be struck, is the law helping us to get that balance right?’