IR v JQ [2018]

In this case the Federal Labour Court in Germany asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a preliminary ruling on whether a Catholic doctor’s dismissal from a managerial position in a Catholic hospital, for remarrying after divorce, constituted unlawful discrimination on grounds of religion. The hospital argued his remarriage amounted to a breach of his duty to act in good faith and a failure to show loyalty to the hospital’s religious ethos, namely, that marriage is sacred and indissoluble.

JQ was a Catholic doctor and Head of Internal Medicine at a hospital in Germany. The hospital was managed by IR, a limited company under the supervision of the Archbishop of Cologne. The company