Overview

This book is a challenging, thought-provoking yet highly accessible introduction to discrimination law. It takes a thematic approach, illuminating the major issues in discrimination law, while imparting an in-depth understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of legal responses to complex social problems of inequality. This is enhanced by the comparative approach. By considering equality law in the UK, US, India, Canada, and South Africa, as well as the European Union and under the European Convention on Human Rights, the book exposes common problems across different jurisdictions and canvasses a variety of differing solutions. As in the highly successful previous editions, the book locates discrimination law within its historical and social context. One of its major strengths is the development of an analytic framework of substantive equality, drawing on a range of sources, and the author's wide experience of equality law in many jurisdictions. As well as chapters charting the social challenges and legal responses, the book compares the ways in which different jurisdictions formulate grounds of discrimination or protected characteristics; the meaning of key concepts such as direct discrimination (disparate treatment); indirect discrimination (disparate impact); and when limitations on equality are legitimate. Later chapters test these concepts in some of the most challenging contexts: pregnancy and parenting, equal pay, reasonable accommodation, and sexual harassment; as well as to the particularly controversial issue of affirmative action or deliberate preference policies. Discussing at length how racisms, sexism, LGBTQ+ rights, and other topics impact these contexts. The final chapter asks how the right to equality can be made more effective, critically assessing the paradigm individual complaints model, and possible alternatives, from class actions and strategic litigation to mainstreaming and positive duties to promote equality.

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9780198854081

Table of Contents

Reviews

Review from previous edition Professor Fredman's treatise on discrimination law is most welcome. Her lucid, practical exposition of the tough concepts and decisions in this field is indispensable to both practitioners and academics who must grapple with its problems. Most importantly, to her whole treatment she brings an illuminating understanding of the values of social justice and human dignity that powerfully underlie laws against discrimination. * Edwin Cameron, Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa * Equality law is one of the most difficult areas of modern law, yet Sandra Fredman¹s Discrimination Law is a model of clarity. It untangles the complex theoretical debates underlying discrimination law, gives a lucid account of the legal principles informing equality legislation, including the new Equality Act, and undertakes a careful analysis of relevant UK and European case law. Throughout, the book draws on Indian, South African, Canadian and US discrimination law and jurisprudence to provide rich comparative insights * Kate O'Regan, Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, 1994-2009 *

Review from previous edition Professor Fredman's treatise on discrimination law is most welcome. Her lucid, practical exposition of the tough concepts and decisions in this field is indispensable to both practitioners and academics who must grapple with its problems. Most importantly, to her whole treatment she brings an illuminating understanding of the values of social justice and human dignity that powerfully underlie laws against discrimination. * Edwin Cameron, Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa * Equality law is one of the most difficult areas of modern law, yet Sandra Fredman(1)s Discrimination Law is a model of clarity. It untangles the complex theoretical debates underlying discrimination law, gives a lucid account of the legal principles informing equality legislation, including the new Equality Act, and undertakes a careful analysis of relevant UK and European case law. Throughout, the book draws on Indian, South African, Canadian and US discrimination law and jurisprudence to provide rich comparative insights * Kate O'Regan, Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, 1994-2009 *

Review from previous edition Professor Fredman's treatise on discrimination law is most welcome. Her lucid, practical exposition of the tough concepts and decisions in this field is indispensable to both practitioners and academics who must grapple with its problems. Most importantly, to her whole treatment she brings an illuminating understanding of the values of social justice and human dignity that powerfully underlie laws against discrimination. * Edwin Cameron, Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa * Equality law is one of the most difficult areas of modern law, yet Sandra Fredman¹s Discrimination Law is a model of clarity. It untangles the complex theoretical debates underlying discrimination law, gives a lucid account of the legal principles informing equality legislation, including the new Equality Act, and undertakes a careful analysis of relevant UK and European case law. Throughout, the book draws on Indian, South African, Canadian and US discrimination law and jurisprudence to provide rich comparative insights * Kate O'Regan, Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, 1994-2009 *

Author Information

Sandra Fredman is Professor of the Laws of the British Commonwealth and the USA at the University of Oxford. She is a Fellow of the British Academy, King's Council (honoris causa), and Director of the Oxford Human Rights Hub. She has published widely and has numerous peer-reviewed publications on equality, labour law, and human rights. She has been an expert advisor on equality for a variety of governments and organizations, and her framework on substantive equality has been used by apex courts in several jurisdictions, as well as by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UN Women and the Abidjan Principles on the Right to Education.

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