A General Legal Right to Conscientious Exemption: Beyond Religious Privilege

The thesis shows that there is a general legal right to exemption for conscientious objectors in the US, Canada and UK. It shows that it is a limited right: exemptions may be lawfully denied to protect the rights of others or important public interests. The thesis then investigates whether such a legal right is exclusively reserved for religious believers. The thesis shows that it is not: it is available to those that object on the basis of conscience, irrespective of whether their conscience is motivated by religious or non-religious beliefs. The thesis concludes by defending the existence of this general right by appealing to liberal values.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Adenitire, John

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Feldman, David

• conscience
• religion
• human right
• discrimination
• conscientious objection
• conscientious exemption
• law

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/3624f3dc-d5ce-4925-813f-dbc47c59b191/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.39265

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/292110