Hong Kong’s history of compulsory schooling (as opposed to education) commenced under colonial rule and has been maintained by the local government following the 1997 Handover. Beyond the exception of “reasonable cause,” homeschooling, or elective home education, is in principle prohibited under the laws of Hong Kong. However, there is evidence of a growing homeschooling community in Hong Kong that relies on loopholes in the law and an apparent de facto government policy to operate. This article sets out the background, legal framework, and homeschooling practice in Hong Kong. It criticizes the current situation from the perspectives of legal certainty and children’s rights. The author suggests that the government should take action to devise clear laws and public policy in relation to elective home education.

Over the last couple of years, France has built up the reputation of a staunchly secular society where, slowly but surely, signs of religious manifestation are being removed from the public space with an appeal to laïcité (French secularism) and other French values. This is why it came as a surprise that, after a long list of unsuccessful religious manifestation cases, in August 2017 the Dijon Administrative Tribunal ruled against a municipality that had decided no to longer accommodate Muslim and Jewish dietary prescriptions in school canteens. The reason for the sudden change appeared to be the approach taken in the relevant case: rather than basing itself on freedom of manifestation, the tribunal had chosen to decide the case solely on the basis of the best interests of the child. Although that approach offered some much-desired relief for the religious communities involved, following an overview of the case below, I will argue that it may not be a sustainable answer to the curtailing of religious manifestations in the name of laïcité.