How Should Religious Fraud and Religious Undue Influence be Regulated by English Courts?
How should the law regulate religious influence motivating gifts? Should criminal fraud laws apply to religious representations? When do religious officials take advantage of adherents in making a financial gain? These are challenging questions that this thesis sets out to assess. The focus is upon the regulation of religious fraud and religious undue influence in English law. Commentators on religious fraud have left significant questions unanswered concerning how such conduct can be regulated by s2 of the Fraud Act 2006, fraud by false representation. One of the objectives of this thesis is to justify why it is possible to litigate religious representations alleged to be false, even if juries are prohibited from testing the falsity of religious beliefs by the jurisprudence on Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The second objective of this thesis is to illustrate the problems with how courts determine when religious influence, an inevitable part of any religious experience, becomes undue in equitable settings. Fundamental differences exist between religious and nonreligious contexts that are not explicitly recognised by courts in finding that religious defendants have taken advantage of an adherent’s trust in presumed cases of undue influence. Based on this analysis, the thesis engages with a third objective and develops a rationale explaining when defendants should be convicted for religious fraud under s2 FA06 and found liable for religious undue influence in presumed undue influence cases. Normative discussions on autonomy and exploitation are examined. This thesis provides reasons why courts should take account of the features of religious relationships and religious motivations for gifts in cases. The rationale reduces the concern identified that decisions in both areas of law are unprincipled and give rise to religious bias. In turn, the thesis describes how religious influence should be regulated by English courts in a way that ensures more consistent regulation of gifts motivated by religious faith across the two different areas of law.
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