The applicants, Cristoforo Buscarini and Emilio Della Balda, were elected to the General Grand Council (the parliament of the Republic of San Marino) in 1993.
They requested permission from the Captains-Regent to take the oath required by the Elections Act without reference to any religious text.
The Act referred to a decree of 27 June 1909, which laid down the wording of the oath to be taken by members of the parliament as follows: "I, ..., swear on the Holy Gospels ...".
As the ECHR rightly stated in its report, it would be contradictory to make the exercise of a mandate intended to represent different views of society within Parliament subject to a prior declaration of commitment to a particular set of beliefs" (Para.
The Court unanimously held that there was a violation of Article 9 of the ECHR (freedom of conscience).