The European Union as Protector and Promoter of Equality

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.

Deals with the understanding of the EU as a project with an important antidiscrimination goal Analyses the principle of equality as a fundamental value of the EU Offers a collection of essays examining the topic from various intra- and extra-European angles

Autorentext

Thomas Giegerich is Director of the Europa-Institut, Professor of European Law, Public International Law and Public Law at Saarland University/Germany as well as holder of the Jean Monnet Chair for European Integration, Antidiscrimination, Human Rights and Diversity. His main fields of research are European Law (EU Constitutional Law, Fundamental Rights, Antidiscrimination Law) and Public International Law, particularly International Human Rights Law.

Inhalt

Introduction: Is the European Union a Credible Protagonist of Equality in Europe and the Wider World?.- Part I Equality as a Fundamental Value of the EU.- Are Equality and Non-Discrimination Part of the EU's Constitutional Identity?.- Equality and Non-Discrimination as an Integral Part of the EU Constitutional Identity.- The Political Dimensions of Equality in the European Union: Equality of Union Citizens and Equality of Member States in a Supranational Representative Democracy.- The Protection and Promotion of Language Equality in the EU: Gaps, Paradoxes, and Double Standards.- Part II The EU as Protector of Equality: General Part of EU Antidiscrimination Law.- Uniformity or Variation: Should the CJEU 'Carry Over' its Gender Equality Approach to the Post-2000 Equality Grounds?.- Non-Discrimination, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights: Who Takes the Lead?.- Has the EU Taken Comprehensive and Coherent Action to Combat Discrimination?.- The Coherence of EU Antidiscrimination Law: A Look at its Systemic Approach in Light of Relational Grounds of Discrimination and Collective Norms in Employment.- Genuine and Determining Occupational Requirement as an Exception to the Prohibition of Discrimination in EU Law.- The Concept of Genuine and Determining Occupational Requirements in EU Equality Law: A Critical Approach.- Making Antidiscrimination Law Effective: Burden of Proof, Remedies and Sanctions in Discrimination Cases.- Substantive Formal Equality in EU Non-Discrimination Law.- A Quite Peculiar Example of Positive Action: The New Directive on Work-Life Balance.- Part III Selected Special Issues of Antidiscrimination Law.- The European Union as a Protector and Promoter of Equality: Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.- Overweight and Obesity as Novel Grounds of Discrimination.- Non-ideal Weight Discrimination in EU Law.- The Impact of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on EU Anti-Discrimination Law.- The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and EU Disability Law: Towards a Converging Vision of Equality?.- Age Discrimination as a Bone of Contention in the EU.- Age Discrimination as a Bone of Contention in the EU: A Psychological Perspective.- Part IV The EU as Promoter of Equality: Inside and Outside Perspective.- The EU's Law and Policy Framework for the Promotion of Gender Equality in the World.- From Hierarchy to Dialogue: EU-Africa Exchange on the Right to Equality and the Prohibition of Discrimination by Religious Organisations.- European Anti-Discrimination Law: The American Perspective.- The European Union as Promoter of Equality in Asia: Beyond Economic Tools of Influence.