The last general elections in Spain took place on 14 March 2004. The Socialist Party took over power after eight years of José María Aznar's rightwing conservative government. According to some commentators, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero became the new Prime Minister unexpectedly. We should bear in mind that only three days earlier, on 11 March, horrendous terrorist attacks in Madrid had shocked the international community.
The enactment of the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 is the most recent legal mechanism developed to protect believers, beliefs and religious feelings in the United Kingdom. Despite the recognition of a certain degree of overlap between the different categories, this article proposes a broad distinction between legal devices which protect believers and those which safeguard beliefs and religious feelings. The common law offence of blasphemy is analysed, taking into consideration the response of both the UK courts and the European Court of Human Rights. The endorsement of the English law of blasphemy by Strasbourg is particularly relevant. Furthermore, this paper focuses on different instruments that, throughout the last few decades, have been articulated to protect the faithful, such as the crimes of religiously aggravated offences and the offence of incitement to religious hatred.Alongside other European countries, 2 the legal framework of the United Kingdom has struggled to make freedom of speech 3 compatible with the protection of religious feelings. However, this challenge does not exclusively refer to domestic jurisdictions. In fact, the difficulties in finding a balance between both rights have been unquestionable in the jurisprudence of the European Court of 1 I would like to thank Professor Norman Doe,
This article explores the specific question of protection which tort law in England and Wales affords to individuals who are victims of ethical spiking (consumption of food contaminated by malicious third parties which is physically harmless, but repugnant to their religion or beliefs), and moves on to analyse the wider implications for the possible evolution of trespass to the person, and the relationship between tort and human rights law in the UK. Although not a comparative piece, it draws on some features of the Spanish paradigm which illustrate significant benefits of developing the law in the English context in the manner suggested.
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