Overview

In an age of widespread cutbacks on social spending, the prospects of social policy generally appear to be grim. If noticeable progress has been recently made in the European Union, then it is in regard to rooting out discrimination. Indeed, anti-discrimination law and policy appears to be the one sphere of social policy whose success is causally connected to the European Union. But how successful can anti-discrimination law be? This book uses legal analysis in order to expose the intrinsic shortcomings of common approaches. Anti-discrimination law fails to provide adequate legal guidance and therefore invites constant supplementation by pedagogical projects of social engineering. This book offers a genuinely leftist critique on anti-discrimination law, and concludes with a discussion of alternative models of solidarity in the Union.

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9780199693375

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Reviews

Somek has a creative mind and an eclectic intellectual sensibility, and the treats us to many speculative surges and theoretical flights to accompany the more grounded parts of his story. Review of Individualism (2008) Neil Walker, Modern Law Review, 73 Alexander Somek is one of the most original, thought-provoking and challenging scholars working on European integration. This book calls on us not only to challenge the end and means of European integration. It is far more profound, challenging us to reflect on what we understand by this project, and whether the language deployed to constitute it is not accepted far too readily. It is a 'must-read'. Damian Chalmers, Professor of European Union Law, London School of Economics European Union studies are in short supply of critical writing from a humanist perspective-it seems to be all social science and law. Somek is a serious lawyer and social scientist, but his critical bite comes from his humanist sensibility. It is a distinct voice which one cannot ignore Joseph Weiler, Joseph Straus Professor of Law and European Union Jean Monmet Chair, NYU School of Law The book is certainly valuable and timely in that it adduces ample evidence of a one-sided orientation of social policy towards a human resources agenda, and shows how this threatens the strength of the European social model. Dagmar Schiek, Common Market Law Review

Somek's sophisticated argument...illustrates the importance of a coherent rationale to guide the evolution of ADL. His book demonstrates well how in the absence of this, ADL is vulnerable to public attack...use the book to begin an essential debate on the foundation and rationale for ADL in the 21st century that recognises its history in the 18th and 19th. Iyiola Solanke, European Law Review Somek has a creative mind and an eclectic intellectual sensibility, and the treats us to many speculative surges and theoretical flights to accompany the more grounded parts of his story. Review of Individualism (2008) Neil Walker, Modern Law Review, 73 Alexander Somek is one of the most original, thought-provoking and challenging scholars working on European integration. This book calls on us not only to challenge the end and means of European integration. It is far more profound, challenging us to reflect on what we understand by this project, and whether the language deployed to constitute it is not accepted far too readily. It is a 'must-read'. Damian Chalmers, Professor of European Union Law, London School of Economics European Union studies are in short supply of critical writing from a humanist perspective-it seems to be all social science and law. Somek is a serious lawyer and social scientist, but his critical bite comes from his humanist sensibility. It is a distinct voice which one cannot ignore Joseph Weiler, Joseph Straus Professor of Law and European Union Jean Monmet Chair, NYU School of Law The book is certainly valuable and timely in that it adduces ample evidence of a one-sided orientation of social policy towards a human resources agenda, and shows how this threatens the strength of the European social model. Dagmar Schiek, Common Market Law Review

Somek has a creative mind and an eclectic intellectual sensibility, and the treats us to many speculative surges and theoretical flights to accompany the more grounded parts of his story. Review of Individualism (2008) Neil Walker, Modern Law Review, 73 Alexander Somek is one of the most original, thought-provoking and challenging scholars working on European integration. This book calls on us not only to challenge the end and means of European integration. It is far more profound, challenging us to reflect on what we understand by this project, and whether the language deployed to constitute it is not accepted far too readily. It is a 'must-read'. Damian Chalmers, Professor of European Union Law, London School of Economics European Union studies are in short supply of critical writing from a humanist perspective-it seems to be all social science and law. Somek is a serious lawyer and social scientist, but his critical bite comes from his humanist sensibility. It is a distinct voice which one cannot ignore Joseph Weiler, Joseph Straus Professor of Law and European Union Jean Monmet Chair, NYU School of Law

Author Information

Alexander Somek holds the Charles E. Floete Chair in Law at the University of Iowa. Prior to joining the faculty in 2003, he was Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna. He has previously published Individualism: An Essay on the Authority of the European Union with OUP (2009).

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