Ruthie urges all lawyers with even a passing interest in human rights to read Lord Bingham’s judgment in R v Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High School [2006] UKHL 15. The clarity of reasoning is superb. This is a humane and lasting judgment achieved without torturous interpretation or the creation of legal fictions.
Shabina Begum was 13 when she decided that her religion required her to wear the Jilbab to school. This was contrary to the school rules. Miss Begum said that these rules infringed her human rights under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, protecting the rights of freedom, thought and religion.
The case was decided against her in the House of Lords on the basis that the restriction on her dress was not disproportionate (the school permitted the shalwar kameez plus headscarf), and since two other schools in the area permitted the jilbab, her rights were not in fact impeded.
In the Court of Appeal Lord Justice Brooke had decided that the school might or might not have got the right policy, but it had not provided an audit trail of its reasoning that showed it had considered human rights provisions in doing so.
Lord Bingham rejected the need for an audit trail. “What matters in any [human rights] case is the practical outcome, not the quality of the decision making process that led to it….the retreat to procedure is…a way of avoiding difficult questions.”
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