Professor Evelyn Ellis provides an analytical and critical examination of the EU law forbidding discrimination, and explores the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the law.

The EU has slowly but surely developed a solid body of equality law that prohibits different facets of discrimination. While the Union had initially developed anti-discrimination norms that served only the commercial rationale of the common market, focusing on nationality (of a Member State) and gender as protected grounds, the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) supplied five additional prohibited grounds of discrimination to the EU legislative palette, in line with a much broader egalitarian rationale. In 2000, two EU Equality Directives followed, one focusing on race and ethnic origin, the other covering the remaining four grounds introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam, namely religion, sexual orientation, disabilities and age. Eighteen years after the adoption of the watershed Equality Directives, it seems timely to dedicate a book to their limits and prospects, to look at the progress made, and to revisit the rise of EU anti-discrimination law beyond gender. This volume sets out to capture the striking developments and shortcomings that have taken place in the interpretation of relevant EU secondary law. Firstly, the book unfolds an up-to-date systematic reappraisal of the five 'newer' grounds of discrimination, which have so far received mostly fragmented coverage. Secondly, and more generally, the volume captures how and to what extent the Equality Directives have enabled or, at times, prevented the Court of Justice of the European Union from developing even broader and more refined anti-discrimination jurisprudence. Thus, the book offers a glimpse into the past, present and – it is hoped – future of EU anti-discrimination law as, despite all the flaws in the Union's 'Garden of Earthly Delights', it offers one of the highest standards of protection in comparative anti-discrimination law.

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.

In Europe, contemporary multicultural issues raise the question as to whether the overlap between the non-discrimination regimes of the European Union and the Council of Europe in the field of public employment may lead to conflicting case law. Would the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) address potential sex, race, and religious discrimination in a similar manner or would these courts take a different approach? This study consists of three parts. First, an analysis is presented of the EU non-discrimination Directives 2006/54, 2000/43, and 2000/78, and the ECJ's assessment in cases of alleged sex, race, and religious discrimination in the public workplace. This is followed by an examination of the non-discrimination provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the right to freedom of religion. Further, the ECtHR's assessment in cases involving potential discrimination in the public workplace based on sex, race, and religion are examined. In the final section, a comparison is made between the provisions and the assessment of the ECJ and the ECtHR. Besides a look at European legislation, case law, and academic literature, this research also uses a legal case study to explore the similarities and differences between the non-discrimination regimes. Accordingly, the theory is again discussed, but now in light of a much debated issue in Europe: the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in public employment. The result of the study is a detailed explanation of the relevant similarities and differences between the approaches of the two courts to claims of discrimination. (Series: School of Human Rights Research - Vol. 59)

Discussing the fundamental role played by equality and non-discrimination in the EU legal order, this insightful book explores the positive and negative elements that have contributed to the consolidation of the process of EU legal integration. It provides an in-depth analysis of the three key dimensions of equality in the EU: equality as a value, equality as a principle and equality as a right.

This edited collection addresses the multidimensionality of EU equality law from conceptual as well as practical perspectives. Bringing together academics from all over Europe and from different disciplines, including law, politics and sociology, the book focuses on the question of multidimensionality and intersectionality, and deals with the consequences of multiplying discrimination grounds within EU equality law.

This book provides a comprehensive and updated legal analysis of the equality principle in EU law. To this end, it argues for a broad definition of the principle, which includes not only its inter-individual dimension, but also the equality of the Member States before the EU Treaties. The book presents a collection of high-quality academic and expert contributions, which, in light of the most recent developments in implementing the post-Lisbon legal framework, reflect the current interpretation of the equality principle, examining its performance in practice with a view to suggesting possible solutions in order to overcome recurring problems. To this end the volume is divided into three Parts, the first of which addresses a peculiar aspect of the EU equality that is mostly overlooked in the investigations devoted to this topic, namely, equality among States. Part II shifts to the inter-individual dimension of equality and explores some major developments contributing to (re)shaping the global framework of EU anti-discrimination law, while Part III undertakes a more practical investigation devoted to the substantive strands of that area of EU law.