Legal Perspectives on Equal Treatment and Non-Discrimination : Studies in Employment and Social Policy

The non-discrimination principle enshrined in the Treaty of Rome has grown, through the case law of the European Court of Justice, into a normative core of the utmost importance for the totality of Community law. In particular, the equal treatment doctrine which developed from the application of non-discrimination in employment continues to challenge the legal structures of labour law and European social integration. This collection of essays on the current and future state of equal treatment and non-discrimination in EC law presents the proceedings of a conference held at Lund University in December 2000, sponsored by the Norma Research Programme, which studies normative patterns and their development in the legal regulation of employment, housing, family and social security from a European integration perspective. Important areas of discussion include the following, among many other topics: indirect discrimination, defining the protected group, pregnancy discrimination, positive action, flexibilization of working life, rights of contract workers, and reasonable adjustments for workers with disabilities. In an interesting outcome, the discussion reveals that an analysis in terms of discrimination adds to our understanding of law even in areas that are not generally articulated in such terms. In the wake of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, and in the light of the distinct possibility that Europe may be moving toward a "Single Non-Discrimination/Equal Treatment Act", this is a fruitful point of view - one of many insights that should make this book a useful source of material with which practitioners, academics, and other interested professionals can further the development of the equal treatment principle in European law.