During the spring of 2014 two midwives in Sweden were denied work because they refused to perform abortion on the grounds of their religious beliefs. Shortly after the health authorities were sued for discrimination. The purpose of this study is to examine whether there should be room for exemptions based on one’s conscience in a neutral liberal state. This essay applies Cécile Labordes theory of individual exceptions and liberal justices on the midwives’ case in Sweden to perform this purpose. Should, or could, they have been exempted from performing abortion and thus be allowed to work as midwives? This essay’s analysis demonstrates that the current case is not compatible with justice and there is thus no room for exemptions on a national level. However, there should be space for exemptions for cases that are compatible with justice, in order for all citizens in a pluralistic society to live in accordance with their own conception of the good.

General and individual exemptions in the provision of state aid under European law This diploma thesis refers to the European regulation of the provision of state aid by member states. Because of the fact that under certain circumstances state aid can affect the economic competition among concurrents both within a member state and within the internal market of the EU and thus have a significant bad influence on it, art. 107 subsection 1 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) states a general interdiction of providing state aid by the memeber states. It defines state aid as financial aid in any form (direct grant, soft loan, tax allowance, interest subsidy etc.), payed out of financial ressources belonging to the state ("state" defined in a large sense as both the central state sphere and local government sphere), which give preferential treatment to certain companies or certain production sectors and thereby affects or may affect competition, and lastly which have an influence on business between the member states (have an effect on the internal market). Of course there have to be exemptions from this general interdiction. The exemptions are regulated in art. 107 subsection 2 TFEU (general exemptions) and 3 TFEU (individual exemptions). There are three general exemptions:...