Cases, Materials and Text on National, Supranational and International Non‐Discrimination Law – Edited by Dagmar Schiek

• Author: Karoliina Ahtela
• Published date: 01 September 2009
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0386.2009.00484_2.x
• Date: 01 September 2009

eulj_484672..681

BOOK REVIEWS

European Union Non-Discrimination Law: Comparative Perspectives on

Multidimensional Equality Law.Edited by D. Schiek and V. Chege. London and New

York: Routledge, 2009. xxxi +411pp. Hb. £90.00.

EU non-discrimination and equality law is a burgeoning area of scholarship and

practice, which already means that this edited collection will be timely and requited. It

proceeds on the—correct—premise that the problematic of multidimensionality is

essential to any contemporary exploration of equality and non-discrimination law.

This includes, most obviously, the problem of multiple and multiplying grounds of

discrimination, against which action on an EU level is being increasingly pursued. The

book’s coverage further includes doctrinal, as well as theoretical, underpinnings of

multidimensional equality, comparative perspectives and a case study on issues related

to Islamic headscarves.

This edited collection comprises 16 contributions from a range of British, Scandina-

vian, Western and Central European researchers, who address multidimensional equal-

ity from legal, sociological and political science perspectives. The book’s most notable

trait is its encyclopaedically wide coverage. Yet, some of its chapters also contain some

unexpected insights, which will give some food for thought to researchers interested in

various aspects of European equality law.

An interesting contribution to note is the chapter by Oddný Mjöll Arnardóttir,

which deals with ‘Themes from the European Convention on Human Rights’ (ECHR).

The underdeveloped and inconsistent nature of the ECHR non-discrimination

provision—Article 14—has been much decried. In what is a refreshing contrast to this

fairly conventional position, the author argues that it is precisely the lack of a regi-

mental approach, f‌irmly compartmentalising different grounds of discrimination, that

has the potential to deal with intersectionality more imaginatively. Furthermore, it

offers some lessons ‘from the unique situation under the Convention [for] the new

multidimensional future of EU equality law’ (p 54). The author identif‌ies ‘the interest

at stake’ (p 57) as the less developed factor inf‌luencing the approach of the European

Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to discrimination cases under Article 14, as opposed

to the type of discrimination and discrimination ground, which are more widely

acknowledged. Also, she cites Thlimmenos v Greece1as evidence of the ECtHR’s

awareness of ‘the complexity of the social construction of identities’ (p 61). In this case,

the applicant’s rather particular identity as a ‘male Jehovah’s Witness...whose reli-

gion involved compelling reasons for refusing to serve in the armed forces’2was good

enough to make his discrimination claim reviewable under Article 14. This avoided

many of the conventional traps associated with multidimensional discrimination, such

as the need for a symmetrical comparator in terms of both sex and religion. The author

also points out that this was the f‌irst case in which the ECtHR recognised ‘reasonable

1(2000) 9 BHRC 12.

2ibid, para 34.

European Law Journal, Vol. 15, No. 5, September 2009, pp. 672–681.

© 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK

and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA