Freedom of Religion Under the European Convention on Human Rights. By Carolyn Evans. [Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2001. xxiv and 222 pp. Hardback £40.00. ISBN 0–19–924364–6.

Abstract

OXFORD University Press has initiated a new series on the European Convention on Human Rights and, in light of recent world events, could not have found a more timely first instalment than Evans’s book on freedom of religion. However, the choice of topics is sound even when one sets aside the current interest in the interplay between law and religion. First, as noted in the general editor’s preface, there is a “considerable body of literature” on the Convention, “including many works providing an overview of the Strasbourg system and its jurisprudence. Less common are studies like Dr. Evans’s book concerned with the interpretation and application of individual provisions” (p. vii). Second, “[i]t is particularly apt that the present volume should appear at a time when, as a result of the Human Rights Act 1998, courts in the United Kingdom are for the first time being called upon to take account of the European Convention. In a multicultural society religious freedom is plainly fundamental and lawyers, judges and others with responsibilities in this area will find Dr. Evans’s book extremely useful” (pp. viii–viii).