European Court of Human Rights declares ‘gay cake’ case inadmissible
by Tamara Barbeary and Sunny Rafaeli
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) handed down a decision on 6 January 2022 in Lee v. United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the ‘gay cake’ case.
Background
In 2014, Gareth Lee, a gay man and LGBTQ+ activist, tried and failed to order a cake with a slogan supporting gay marriage at a bakery in Belfast. Mr. Lee claimed against the bakery in 2015, arguing that their refusal to fulfil his order was an act of discrimination on the grounds of both sexual orientation and political opinion. His arguments were initially successful. However, in 2018, the Supreme Court rejected these arguments on the grounds that the bakery’s refusal to provide the cake was due to the proposed message on the cake which went against the Christian beliefs of the owner of the bakery, rather than Mr. Lee’s sexual orientation.
Mr. Lee referred the case to the ECtHR, claiming that his human rights had been violated. He alleged that there had been breaches of Article 8 (right to respect for private life), Article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) and Article 10 (freedom of expression), all in conjunction with Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination).
The decision of the ECtHR
On 6 January, the ECtHR ruled that the case was inadmissible as Mr. Lee had failed to raise the breach of his Convention rights in the UK court system. By failing to do this, he was depriving the domestic courts of the opportunity to address any Convention issues first.
The full decision can be accessed here.
Implications
This case serves as an important reminder that where rights protected by the European Convention on Human Rights are at issue, the party seeking to rely on these rights should ensure that they have first invoked their convention rights in domestic proceedings and that relevant arguments are made at a preliminary stage in litigation.
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