Abstract
In January 2020, an employment tribunal in the United Kingdom decided that ethical veganism qualified for protection from discrimination as a philosophical belief under the UK’s Equality Act 2010. This article explores the reasoning behind this judgement, as presented in the preliminary hearing decision for Mr J Casamitjana Costa v The League Against Cruel Sports, to argue that ethical veganism in this context can be conceptualized as a form of nonreligion. This article uses a relational theory of nonreligion to demonstrate how ethical veganism in this case is constructed to be distinct from religious belief while also being conceptually entangled with religion. It contributes to emergent scholarship on nonreligion, and veganism and (non)religion, by demonstrating how a relational framework allows connections among these phenomena to be articulated and explored with greater depth. In addition, this article considers the diversity of ethical veganism as an identity and practice in relation to its legal construction as a philosophical belief. Attention is paid to the ways in which veganism as lived can intersect with religion, nonreligion and areligion.
Highlights
Jordi Casamitjana is a zoologist and ethical vegan who lives in London, England
In January 2020, during its preliminary hearing decision for Mr J Casamitjana Costa v The League Against Cruel Sports,2 a Norwich employment tribunal concluded that ethical veganism constitutes a philosophical belief protected by law
Describing the outcome of the hearing, an article from BBC News (2020) states: “The judge ruled that ethical vegans should be entitled to similar legal protections in British workplaces as those who hold religious beliefs.”18 Similar to the Tribunal, ethical veganism is discursively constructed in these accounts as being distinct from religion, while still having a “religion-like” status as a belief that can herald protection from the law
Summary
Jordi Casamitjana is a zoologist and ethical vegan who lives in London, England. In 2016, he started working for The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), a registered charity in the United Kingdom that works to stop humans from killing nonhuman animals for sport. In January 2020, during its preliminary hearing decision for Mr J Casamitjana Costa v The League Against Cruel Sports,2 a Norwich employment tribunal concluded that ethical veganism constitutes a philosophical belief protected by law.
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