Is Scientology a Religion? A Few Thoughts on Religious Marriage and the UK Supreme Court

Lorenzo Zucca 

King's College London – The Dickson Poon School of Law
December 9, 2013

Abstract:      

Britain lives in the age of equal marriage: most forms of discrimination have been removed and the state recognizes the union between two persons rather than that between a man and a woman. It is therefore surprising that religious marriage is not fully pluralist: the church of scientology, for example, is not allowed to celebrate valid religious marriages on its premises. Equal marriage is a test case for the limits of religious pluralism and for the future of secularism. Religious pluralism is an established fact of contemporary societies: the number of religious groups is increasing. So is it possible to limit religious marriage to only a number of recognized and well-established religions? And on what basis is it possible to say that scientology is not a religion?

Number of Pages in PDF File: 12

Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2365308