Disability Discrimination and Substantive Equality: What Lessons Could Be Learned from the British Public Sector Equality Duty?

Abstract

This Article is intended to clarify the conceptual and theoretical link between disability discrimination and substantive equality within the context of the statutory duty on public authorities to advance equality of opportunity, and to cast light on the pervading influence of the tenets of formal equality which may prevent the duty from having a genuinely transformative effect. The duty is evaluated in the light of the basic precepts embodied in Ronald Dworkin’s distinction between equal treatment and treatment as equals, alongside the supranational benchmarks established by the United Nations Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD) and in the field of employment, the precedence set by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the European Union (EU) Framework Directive on Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation (Framework Directive).

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