Applying International And European Anti Discrimination Law To The Housing Context

This is the first study of anti-discrimination law as it applies to housing law in Europe. It offers an important perspective in a field dominated by employment law studies, while drawing on concepts significant in that field as well. Legislative discussion looks at EU law, the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Social Charter and related case law. The book goes further to examine United Nations human rights instruments and related practice of UN committees. This unique focus allows for a fuller understanding of anti-discrimination law's implications, potential, and challenges.

This collection of essays explores the evolution of anti-discrimination law in European civil law jurisdictions. Historically, scholarship in this area has focused on the common law, which has also taken the lead in developing the theory and practice of anti-discrimination law. This volume breaks new ground by offering a sustained, critical, legal and socio-legal, comparative look at how anti-discrimination is faring in European civil law environments. While it is true that anti-discrimination law is seen as a foreign transplant in some regions, it does not fare poorly across the board. As shown by the case studies herein, the success of anti-discrimination law is found to vary according to its national context, the actors involved, and the evolution of the particular concept or ground of discrimination in question.

An intriguing paradox characterises international and European action against discrimination. On the one hand, equality and the right to non-discrimination are key human rights and protected by an impressive line of legal documents. On the other hand, empirical studies show that discrimination is still rampant today. This book maps the gap between the rights and the reality, and examines the causes, consequences and extent of discrimination in Europe today as well as the international and European legal response to it. On the basis of this analysis, the study explains why anti-discrimination law fails to deliver, and what can be done about it. The result is of interest to scholars, students, civil society, politicians and anyone interested in equality and making it a reality.

This collection, which stems from the International Conference on Comparative Non-Discrimination Law held at Utrecht, The Netherlands, in June 1998, covers both the general aspects of equality and non-discrimination law (Part I), as well as the specific grounds for discrimination, adverse impact or indirect discrimination, and affirmative action (Part II). Part III discusses diverse aspects of the enforcement of non-discrimination law; Part IV contains conclusions and an agenda for change. This book is unique in that it both provides a comparative view of anti-discrimination law in theory and practice, and looks at a wide range of grounds for discrimination, such as gender, race, religion and health. Its comparative and international approach renders this publication not only of interest to civil rights lawyers, but to all those engaged in human rights and comparative law.

This book considers the European Union as a project with a major antidiscrimination goal, which is important to remember at a time of increasing resentment against particularly exposed groups, especially migrants, refugees, members of ethnic or religious minorities and LGBTI persons. While equality and non-discrimination have long been core principles of the international community as a whole, as is made obvious by the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they have shaped European integration in a particular way. The concepts of diversity, pluralism and equality have always been inherent in that process, the EU being virtually founded on the values of equality and non-discrimination. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU contains the most modern and extensive catalogue of prohibited grounds of discrimination, supplementing the catalogue enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. EU law has given new impulses to antidiscrimination law both within Europe and beyond. The contributions to this book focus on how effective and credible the EU has been in combatting discrimination inside and outside Europe. The authors present different (mostly legal) aspects of that topic and examine them from various intra- and extra-European angles.

This book contributes to a critical reflection of current legislative and jurisprudential developments in Non-Discrimination Law, focusing on the European Union. The book is focused on intersectionality between gender, race and disability and the question of whether, and to what extent, this intersection can be adequately addressed in (EU) law. The discussion rests on two basic assumptions. First, the multiplication of 'discrimination grounds' in EU law and other legal regimes should not result in a dilution of the demands of equality law. Accordingly, the book focuses on the three key grounds - race, gender and disability. These constitute nodes around which other discrimination grounds can be grouped. Second, any multi-ground non-discrimination law framework needs to engage with the question of discrimination on several grounds. This book provides a critical evaluation of some of the problems presented by such intersectionality and an opportunity to explore the issues in depth. This collection offers some new proposals relating to the regrouping of identity categories and to the general approach to socio-legal research in the field. It also contains a comparative section, which expands on practical experiences with intersectionality and law, and a section dedicated to juridical responses to intersectionality. The book will be a valuable resource for researchers, academics and those working in the area of EU non-discrimination law and policy.

Although the effect of the EC Anti-Discrimination Framework Directive 2000/78 pervades age discrimination law in all Member States, the courts of each country can and do interpret its provisions – especially pertaining to sanctions – in various ways. In addition, claims of discrimination are handled according to national law, and an administrative law system with its own particular procedure is usually present. This very useful book provides a country-by-country overview of anti-discrimination legislation and related jurisprudence in the 27 EU Member States as well as Switzerland, Russia, and Turkey. The reports, written by experienced employment lawyers from each country, offer expert practical guidance and analysis regarding national laws affecting access to employment and vocational training, information and consultation, working conditions, recruitment, dismissal, retirement, and other relevant factors. The emphasis throughout is on the application of the crucial conceptual elements that derive from EC anti-discrimination law – direct adverse treatment, indirect discrimination, and the grounds on which a difference in treatment due to age is permissible. Each report explains in detail how anti-discrimination law operates at the national level, providing lucid guidance to the legal options available under any set of circumstances likely to arise, including the following: differential treatment, including special or minimum conditions; harassment and victimisation; fixed-term contracts; age-based graduation of compensation; employment relationships with an international dimension; affirmative action; special categories of workers; complaints to a competent person or body in the company; complaints to anti-discrimination offices; suits in labour courts; compensation limits; violator’s economic position; non-pecuniary damage suffered by the aggrieved party; effects of collective bargaining agreements; and social plans resulting from planned operational changes. Many of the reports pay special attention to the far-reaching implications of such important recent ECJ cases as von Colson & Kamann, Mangold, Palacios de la Villa, and Bartsch. Enormously helpful to all concerned with employment law in one or more countries in Europe, this book will prove especially valuable to legal counsel and human resources professionals in numerous situations that arise in day-to-day business conduct. Law students will also find it extremely useful for its concise but detailed perspective on the varieties of anti-discrimination law across Europe. The Publication of this book has been made possible with the support of the law firms allied with Ernst & Young throughout Europe, Pinsent Masons, Luther, selected independent law firms and the Holland Law School.