Sex as a Protected Ground in International and Domestic Law

This volume in the Brill Research Perspectives in Comparative Discrimination Law addresses sex as a protected ground in international and domestic law. It compares sex discrimination protection through three thematic lenses. Firstly, it charts and compares the evolution and development of sex discrimination protection in international human rights law in three treaty-bodies – the CEDAW Committee, the HRC and the CESCR. Secondly, it then takes up the evolution and development of sex discrimination protection in three domestic law frameworks – the United States, Australia and India. Finally, the development of sex discrimination protection in international law is compared with the development of sex discrimination protection in the domestic legal contexts of the three country examples, with the implications of that comparison analysed. This volume seeks to show that despite differences in the way that international approaches to sex discrimination are translated into domestic law and differences in social, political and cultural contexts women face similar limitations in accessing justice through sex discrimination frameworks.

Africa and the Decolonisation of State-Religion Policies

This volume in the Brill Research Perspectives in Comparative Discrimination Law addresses religion, the State and discrimination. The long history of state-religion interaction has yielded four main interface models: the religious state; the state with an established religion; the antireligious state; and the secular state. African states have drawn from these four models when struggling to manage state-religion relations. This volume argues that the African countries studied here, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, apply the concept of state-secularism without having their triple heritage, which encompasses African religion, Islam and Christianity, in contemplation. This volume proposes that the best way to realise the full flowering of the triple heritage is to erect the three pillars of Charles Taylor’s definition of state-secularism, which in this case should entail i) the freedom to have and to manifest religious beliefs, ii) equal treatment of religion, and iii) and efforts toward an all-inclusive state identity.

Intersectionality and Comparative Antidiscrimination Law

This volume in the Brill Research Perspectives in Comparative Discrimination Law addresses intersectionality from the lens of comparative antidiscrimination law. The term ‘intersectionality’ was coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in 1989. As a field, intersectionality has a longer history, of nearly two hundred years. Meanwhile, comparative antidiscrimination law as a field may be just over a few decades old. Thus, intersectionality’s tryst with antidiscrimination law is a fairly recent one. Developed as a critique of antidiscrimination law, intersectionality has had a significant influence on it. Yet, intersectionality’s logic does not seem to have infiltrated the logic of antidiscrimination law completely. Comparative antidiscrimination law continues to develop with intersectionality in sight, but rarely, in step. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Crenshaw’s seminal article that coined the term in the context of antidiscrimination law, Shreya Atrey explores this irony. Her article provides a meta-narrative of the development of the two fields with the purpose of showing what appear to be orthogonal trajectories.

The Ubiquity of Positive Measures for Addressing Systemic Discrimination and Inequality

In The Ubiquity of Positive Measures for Addressing Systemic Discrimination and Inequality: A Comparative Global Perspective, part of the Brill series on Comparative Discrimination Law, David Oppenheimer compares positive measures for addressing inequality and systemic discrimination, including discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, color, national origin, disability, and religion. Across the globe, such measures are ubiquitous, commonly applied in employment, admission to selective colleges and universities, selection for legislative seats, and membership on corporate boards. They are variously described as “positive measures,” “affirmative action,” “positive action,” “compensatory action,” or “special measures.” These policies began in the late-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries, as a part of the social/political movements to end slavery, grant universal suffrage, end colonialism, grant equal rights to women and men regardless of social status or property, eliminate the caste system, adopt measures of proportional representation, embrace the benefits of diversity, and endorse universal equality. Nearly every large nation in the world has adopted at least some special measure plans, with continuing experiments using quotas, reservations, set-asides, reparations, preferences, tie-breakers, targeted recruiting efforts, diversity measures, equity and inclusion policies, anti or unconscious bias training, and public disclosure requirements.

Empirical Research and Workplace Discrimination Law

In Empirical Research and Workplace Discrimination Law, part of the series Comparative Discrimination Law, Alysia Blackham offers a succinct comparative survey of empirical research that is occurring in workplace discrimination law, across jurisdictions such as the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Drawing on case studies of existing scholarship, Blackham offers both a rationale for conducting empirical research in this area, and methodological options for researchers considering empirical work. Using examples from case law and public policy, the author considers the impact that empirical research is having on discrimination law and policy, and highlights fundamental gaps in existing empirical scholarship.

Racial Discrimination

This fifth volume in the Brill Research Perspectives in Comparative Discrimination Law surveys the field of comparative race discrimination law for the purpose of providing an introduction to the nature of comparing systems of discrimination and the transnational search for effective equality laws and policies. This volume includes the perspectives of racialized subjects (subalterns) in the examination of the reach of the laws on the ground. It engages a variety of legal and social science resources in order to compare systems across a number of contexts (such as the United States, Canada, France, South Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Israel, India, and others). The goal is to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of various kinds of anti-discrimination legal devices to aid in the study of law reform efforts across the globe centered on racial equality.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination

Laws concerning sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) have undergone a sea change. Still, legal protections against SOGI discrimination vary widely around the world. As jurisdictions wrestle with whether and how to protect people against SOGI discrimination, several conceptual questions emerge. This Brill volume reviews and discusses legal developments and scholarly commentary concerning these questions. Specifically, this volume examines the following five questions: (1) Is SOGI discrimination encompassed by existing laws prohibiting discrimination based on sex? (2) Should sexual orientation and gender identity be considered protected categories in and of themselves? (3) Is there a standard sequence of steps for developing legal protections against SOGI discrimination? (4) What are the drawbacks of developing SOGI discrimination protections? (5) To what extent should religious objections justify exemptions from SOGI discrimination bans?

Comparative Discrimination Law: Age as a Protected Ground

This comparative review of age as a protected ground in discrimination law explores the underpinning questions and themes related to two main dimensions of age discrimination. The first dimension is structural, economic and labour market driven, whereby age is used to allocate a range of rights, obligations and benefits within society. The second is the social justice and equality dimension, in which age is understood as an aspect of individual identity that is worthy of protection against indignity or detriment. The review then considers the law on age discrimination in a number of jurisdictions, the EU law, the UK, Sweden, USA, Canada and South Africa, and assesses the extent to which the underpinning questions explain the developing case law.

International Human Rights Law and Discrimination Protections

Non-discrimination is a fundamental principle of international human rights law. This volume discusses the international legal framework on this principle and comparatively elaborates the definition of discrimination as well as the grounds of discrimination in the various general and specialised international human rights treaties, including the International Labour Organisation conventions. The element of special measures as an integral aspect of this principle is also raised. A comparative discussion on the incorporation of international standards on the principle of non-discrimination established in the international treaties in regional as well as national human rights frameworks is also set forth to provide practical illustrations of the application of these standards in more specific and localised perspectives. Selected regional frameworks discussed are the African, American and European human rights regional frameworks and the national frameworks are South Africa and Brazil.