James Hand

The compensation culture: cliché or cause for concern?

The ‘compensation culture’ has featured frequently in the popular press over the last decade. There have, however, been comparatively few academic studies and such studies as there have been have largely focused on personal injury claims. A compensation culture, if it exists, could extend much wider than that. This article compares the exponential increase in the use of the term ‘compensation culture’ in the national printed media since 1995 with available statistics relating to the Queens Bench, County Courts, and employment tribunals. Far from spiralling upwards, these statistics show a broad decline across a range of claims with the exception of claims before the employment tribunals, where the government has created a slew of new heads of claim. In order to counter the misconceptions founded by the popular media, and to allow for greater scrutiny, more attention should be paid to the collection and dissemination of judicial and claims statistics.

Unification, simplification, amplification? An analysis of aspects of the British Equality Act 2010

Since the seminal Sex Discrimination Act 1975, modern British equality law developed in a piecemeal fashion over four decades. The landmark Equality Act 2010 was designed to unify, simplify and, to a limited extent, strengthen the legislation in this area. Despite its long gestation period, the Bill suffered from a lack of parliamentary scrutiny. This article sets the Equality Act in context and, by analysing certain aspects, discusses how far it has met those aims.

The curious case of marriage/civil partnership discrimination in Britain

Discrimination on grounds of marital status was one of the first grounds to be protected in British discrimination law (as part of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975). However, it has always been a highly restricted provision and, seldom litigated, it faced abolition during the passage of the Equality Act 2010. Although marriage/civil partnership was retained as a protected characteristic, the Equality Act 2010 did nothing to clarify or expand its function. This article considers developments that could mean that marriage/civil partnership discrimination could have a much wider scope rather than, as some would have it, being relegated to being a quaint relic of the past.

The British Equality Act 2010 and the foundations of legal knowledge

The Equality Act 2010, in its content and passage through Parliament, provides a rare example of an Act that engages, to some extent, with all seven foundations of legal knowledge (the English compulsory subjects upon which other legal subjects build). This article examines the Equality Act 2010 through the prism of the foundations and, in light of ongoing reform, contends that while anti-discrimination law is an important subject it should not join the list of foundations but rather that awareness and appreciation of those foundations can provide a richer understanding of such laws as the Equality Act 2010.

A Decade of Change in British Discrimination Law: Positive Steps Forward?

The past decade has seen many developments in anti‐discrimination law in Great Britain, from the implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Treaty of Amsterdam 1997, to the EU framework directive for equal treatment in employment introducing three new protected grounds between 2003 and 2006 (and the subsequent extension beyond employment, in national law, of two of those grounds). All of these, and myriad implementing regulations, build on the national foundations set by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Race Relations Act 1976. With formal equality remaining the dominant model, this article looks at the scope for positive measures within British anti‐discrimination law.

Life, work and capital in legal practice

Abstract Career opportunities in legal practice remain significantly gendered, raced and classed in many countries. In particular, features of the organisation and culture of law firms in an era of neoliberalism exemplify how patterns of disadvantage for women and minority ethnic lawyers are sustained. This paper introduces a special issue of papers on the ongoing challenges faced by women and minorities, particularly in the large law firm, – an increasingly important sector of the legal profession. Both the special issue and this paper focus on three initiatives – diversity, work–life balance and wellbeing – purportedly designed to alleviate such disadvantage. The paper argues that distinctive features of capital in the large law firm, while ignoring the structural and underlying conditions for creation and maintenance of such disadvantage, limit the potential of such initiatives at the same time as renewing disadvantage.

Outside the Equality Act Non-standard protection from discrimination in British law

The ‘single’ Equality Act 2010 was intended to unify and simplify British discrimination law which had grown-up piecemeal over 40 years. However, a number of protections did not follow the standard model (as originally laid down in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) and remained outside the unification process. Such grounds include trade union membership and the possession of whistle-blower status and past criminal records. This difference has been significant in the government’s reaction to the European Court of Human Rights’ decision in Redfearn v. UK regarding membership of political parties, where the government opted to expand these ‘other’ protections rather than amend the Equality Act 2010. This article considers the role and status of these other discriminations which remain outside the Equality Act 2010 in light of the government’s response to Redfearn.

Enigmas of the Equality Act 2010—“Three uneasy pieces”

Abstract The Equality Act 2010 was designed to simplify as well as unify British discrimination law. While there has been some significant unification, there are a number of areas where it has fallen short with regard to simplification, indeed it has introduced or cemented complexity and confusion. This article examines three such areas concerning two of the protected characteristics (pregnancy/maternity and gender reassignment) and one of the claims (victimisation) within the Equality Act 2010.