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Fredman on Socio-Economic Disadvantage & Anti-Discrimination Law

By Lawrence Solum

Sandra Fredman (University of Oxford Faculty of Law) has posted Positive Duties and Socio-Economic Disadvantage: Bringing Disadvantage onto the Equality Agenda on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Traditionally in the UK, distributive inequalities have been dealt with quite separately from inequality based on sex, race, or other ?status?. While distributive inequalities are regarded as the domain of the political sphere, inequality on grounds of ?status? is dealt with by anti-discrimination laws. It is thus of considerable importance that the Equality Act 2010 includes a positive duty on public bodies in relation to socio-economic disadvantage. The paper argues that, while only a small step in the right direction, the new duty is nevertheless a significant one. Paying attention to socio-economic disadvantage can only assist and strengthen the effectiveness of status-based anti-discrimination laws. At the same time, it needs to be recognised that there is a reciprocal interaction between socio-economic disadvantage and status. This makes it essential to achieve close co-ordination between the new socio-economic disadvantage duty and established status duties. It is, however, unfortunate that the duty is only one to ?pay due regard? to the desirability of reducing inequalities related to socio-economic disadvantage, rather than to take steps to achieve this end. Nevertheless, the ?due regard? standard can perform an important function if public bodies are required to justify and explain their decisions openly. It is thus of great importance that politicians and civil society groups insist on transparency and accountability of decision-makers; and that judicial review proceedings be viewed as a means of enforcing such accountability.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on June 29, 2010 (boomark / email).