Law society in Nova Scotia appealing ruling in favour of Trinity Western

Nova Scotia's law society is appealing a court ruling that stops it from denying accreditation to graduates from a Christian university due to the school's policy of prohibiting sexual intimacy outside heterosexual marriage.

The province's Supreme Court ruled in January that the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society doesn't have the power to require law schools, such as the one proposed by Trinity Western University, to change its religiously based code of conduct.

The society says in a news release it will appeal to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal because it has a mandate to protect the public.

It says if left unchallenged, the ruling by Judge James Campbell could restrict the scope of the society's authority to protect the public interest in regulating the legal profession.

The society says the ruling may also prohibit it from continuing to take on a wider role in the promotion of equality in all aspects of its work, including in the administration of justice.

The British Columbia-based university says in a news release that Campbell decided the case correctly, comprehensively and with clarity and it expects that the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal will arrive at the same decision.