The Dioceses, Pastoral and Mission Measure 2007 is the longest and widest-ranging piece of legislation to come before the General Synod since the early 1980s. Like the recommendations of the Review Group under Professor Peter Toyne, to which it gives effect, the Measure focuses on the twin themes of mission and ministry. The Review Group's remit was ‘to ensure flexible and cost effective procedures which fully meet changing pastoral and mission needs’, and the Measure extends to areas of the life and legislation of the Church of England as diverse as the Church's provincial and diocesan structure, the delegation of episcopal functions, diocesan administration, and the processes for making changes to local church organisation and closing churches for regular public worship. The Measure also establishes a single central Church source of information and advice on church buildings. Finally, it provides a very practical example of the concept of a ‘mixed-economy church’ by laying down the legal framework for the new bishops' mission orders, which are intended to provide endorsement, supervision and support for a wide and growing variety of new mission initiatives, but without undermining the traditional parochial structures. The article sets out to provide an overview of the legislation, and to highlight the provisions that are likely to be of particular importance in practice or of particular interest for the study of ecclesiastical law.

In many modern works of ecclesiastical law, the Institutes of Sir Edward Coke are given as the authority for the consecration of buildings as places of public worship. For authority Coke relies on scriptural precedent. This paper suggests that, in fact, the origin of consecration as a legal precedent lies in pre-Christian Roman law.1

This paper examines the condition of women in both Israel and Islamic countries, specifically their freedom to leave a marriage, and compares respective models. First, the study analyses the peculiar relationship between secular and religious law in Israel and Islamic countries. Second, it studies the nature of marriage as a contract in these legal systems, comparing a totally private approach and a mixed, public–private approach. Third, it analyses the possibilities of dissolution of marriage in such legal systems, indentifying some aspects of gender disparity. Finally it discusses some juridical tools offered in these legal contexts, which are intended to rebalance the exercise of a woman's freedom to leave a marital relationship and its conditions.

This is the first in what is intended as a series of comments on current developments in the law concerning freedom of religion that will appear regularly in this Journal. This first survey deals with religious liberty challenges brought in the UK courts in 2007 and 2008. A subsequent survey will examine similar developments in international human rights law and especially before the European Court of Human Rights.

A century and a half ago, Mormons made national headlines by claiming a First Amendment right to practise polygamy, despite criminal laws against it. In four cases, from 1879 to 1890, the United States Supreme Court firmly rejected their claim, and threatened to dissolve the Mormon church if they persisted. Part of the Court's argument was historical: the common law has always defined marriage as monogamous, and to change those rules ‘would be a return to barbarism’. Part of the argument was prudential: religious liberty can never become a licence to violate general criminal laws ‘lest chaos ensue’. And part of the argument was sociological: monogamous marriage ‘is the cornerstone of civilization’, and it cannot be moved without upending our whole culture. These old cases are still the law of the land and most Mormons renounced polygamy after 1890.

The Human Rights Act 1998 has led to an increase in domestic litigation concerning Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Most such cases have been unsuccessful, particularly at higher level. Moreover, such claims have increasingly failed due to lack of interference under Article 9(1) rather than on grounds of justification under Article 9(2). This has meant that litigants in religious dress cases are now arguing anything but Article 9: the most recent case, concerning the wearing of the Sikh Kara in Aberdare, was successful because, while the school saw the issue as one concerning Article 9, the claimant's legal team relied instead on race and religious discrimination laws. It is not surprising, therefore, that the House of Lords rejected the most recent argument made on grounds of Articles 9 and 14. It is the merits of that argument and the haste displayed in its rejection that are the focus of this brief comment.

In September, the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) and the Charity Commission launched a joint consultation on the detail of the new Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs), a corporate structure envisaged under the Charities Act 2006. CIOs will be registered with and regulated by the Charity Commission and will offer charities an alternative to incorporation under company law, thereby avoiding dual regulation by the Commission and by Companies House.

In February, the Synod revised the draft legislation on clergy terms of service. Attention was chiefly focused on the parts of the draft Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Measure dealing with the vesting of parsonage houses; in the event, the Synod voted to reject those provisions under which ownership of parsonage houses would have been transferred from the incumbent to the diocesan parsonages board. In contrast, the draft of the Regulations to be made under the Measure, which will specify the detailed terms of service, was accepted without amendment.

The 2008 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland attended to various legal issues in the spirit of general reform.

In April, a Bill was considered to enable women to be consecrated as bishops. The most crucial amendment for consideration was that ‘the Bench of Bishops will provide pastoral care and support for those who in conscience cannot accept the ordination of women as priests and bishops through the ministry of an Assistant Bishop or Bishops’. The Archbishop resisted the amendment on the grounds that, if it were passed, the Church

The Synod met in Galway; there were two Bills of particular significance.

Synod discussed the question of whether, by way of Covenant, some degree of regulatory certainty could be given to the Lambeth Conference as one of the Instruments of Communion in the Anglican Communion. The Synod was being asked to give commitment to the process ‘in principle’ but not to the details, and an indication of the synodical process by which the Covenant might be adopted. It was therefore remitted to the Faith and Order Board to decide how this could be done. The Bishop of St Andrews considered that the process was a means of broadening discussion; others were concerned that, if the Church committed itself to the process, it committed itself to the outcome; yet others described the whole concept of a Covenant as very un-Anglican.

The 14th General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia was held in Canberra, against a backdrop of a number of important circumstances. Within the Anglican Church, the Appellate Tribunal had determined by a 4 to 3 majority that there was nothing in the Constitution to prevent a woman becoming a diocesan bishop. Within Australia, there were issues of drought and climate. Within the Anglican Communion, there was the ongoing international turmoil over human sexuality.

The twentieth Annual Congress of the European Consortium for Church and State Research was held in Järvenpää in Finland, on the subject of Religion in Criminal Law. It was held at the Training College of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church, hosted by and ceremonially opened by Matti Repo, Bishop of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland, Joni Hiitola from the Ministry of Education and Professor Sophie van Bijsterveld, President of the European Consortium.