What are Conscientious Exemptions Really About?

Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Forthcoming

Posted: 3 Feb 2013

See all articles by Yossi Nehushtan

Yossi Nehushtan

Keele University - School of Law

Date Written: February 1, 2013

Abstract

The main argument of this article is that granting conscientious exemptions is best understood as the outcome of tolerance than as a way of applying the idea of equality. It is also argued that perceiving the right to be granted conscientious exemptions (if such a right indeed exists) as either an individual right, a communal right, a minority right or a means of applying affirmative action would fail, in too many cases, to describe correctly the practice of granting conscientious exemptions.

Finally, granting conscientious exemptions is better understood as the outcome of tolerance than as a way of applying the idea of equality. The principle of tolerance successfully describes the practice of granting conscientious exemptions in almost all cases. It offers the best description of the state of mind and the behaviour of the state and it is wide yet precise enough to accommodate all the other — however contradictory — explanations.

Keywords: conscientious exemptions, tolerance, equality

Suggested Citation

Nehushtan, Yossi, What are Conscientious Exemptions Really About? (February 1, 2013). Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2210519

Yossi Nehushtan (Contact Author)

Keele University - School of Law ( email )

Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG
United Kingdom

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