Suchergebnisse

Equality law is in a state of ferment in the UK with a Westminster bill having laid the ground for a single Equality and Human Rights Commission, new European Directives on Equality, a debate in Northern Ireland over the adoption of a Single Equality Act (OFMDFM, 2004) and a stalled debate in Northern Ireland over a Bill of Rights. (O'Connell, 2006: 3).

This paper reviews the development and nature of one of the two components of the UK's equality regime – equality law. The origins of equality law lie in the postwar consensus on non-discrimination. The paper reviews the limitations of non-discrimination or negative equality duties. It documents the expansion of equality law at the turn of the twentieth/twenty-first century, when seven UK Acts and two European Directives introduced additional negative equality duties, provided for a new enforcement authority and introduced positive equality duties in respect of some social statuses. Many of these duties were introduced as part of devolution arrangements. UK equality law leads the field in European terms. The nature of positive equality duties and New Labour's approach to equality in general are also critiqued.

This paper explores issues of social and multiple identity and their implications for equality law and practice. The paper considers three principal dilemmas – passing, groupism and the limitations of participatory justice as a political strategy for the achievement of equality. The objective is to contribute a 'thick' understanding of issues of identity and identification with which to inform and situate the development of the UK's 'single equality approach'. The paper argues that the negotiations of identity required of members of minority groups is a form of work.

This paper summarises the way equality has featured in the disciplines of social policy and political theory leading up to the presentation of a new egalitarianian framework for thinking about and acting for equality. The paper presents a broadly chronological, integrated review of the place of equality within the subjects concerned. The longstanding problems of universalism and targeting are themes which recur throughout, and in New Labour's approach to equality and social justice.