Introduction

• Author: Vickers, Lucy
• Pages: 10-11

10

INTRODUCTION

The national legal system

The United Kingdom (UK) comprises E ngland, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (NI).

Great Britain (GB) includes Eng land, Wales and Scotland. The UK, which has th ree legal

systems (En gland an d Wales, Scotland an d Northern Ireland), is a parliamentary

democracy with neither a w ritten constitution prescribing separation of legislative,

executive and judicial powers, nor an entrenched constitutional bill of right s.

All UK-wide law-making powers are vested in the Westminster Parliament, which legislates

through both primary legislation (Acts of Parliament) and secondary laws (Statutory

Instruments). These laws are subs equently ‘interpreted’ by the courts to create a body of

case law which is based on the binding rules of legal precedent. The Westminster

Parliament can only legislate in the areas which have not devolved to the Scottish

Parliament, the Welsh Assembly or the Northern Ireland Assembly. However, it can

legislate in those areas where one of those legislatures consents to legislation being passed

on its behalf. Of importance in this context is that equalities legislation in S cotland and

Wales is reserved t o the Westminster Parliament - in other words it is only Westminster

that can legislate in the area of equaliti es for England, Wales and Sc otland. For Northern

Ireland, the Northern Ireland Assembly has competence to legislate in the area of

equalities.

Section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 permits the transposition of EU

legislation into UK legislation by regulations without the need for primary legislation.

Anti-discrimination legislat ion in the UK is enforced mainly through the civil courts, with

the exception of some minor provisions that provide for criminal sanctions. The relevant

judicial systems in the three jurisdictions within the UK (England and Wales, Scotland and

Northern Ireland) are similar but not identical. In each there ar e first instance tribunals in

which all employment -related cases are heard and separate civil court s (county courts in

NI and England and Wales, sheriff courts in Scotland) for other civil claims. The final civil

appeal court for all three jurisdictions is the Supreme Court which came into being in

October 2009, replacing the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords (and the Judicial

Committee of the Privy Council). Non-employment cases are generally heard in the county

courts or (in the case of some public law claims, the Administrative Court) with appeal to

the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

List of main legislation transposing and implementing the directiv es.

GB

 The Equality Act 20103 (EqA):

o adopted 08.04.2010;

o grounds covered: sex (incl. gender r eassignment, married/ civilly partnered

status/ pregnancy), colour, nationality (including citizenship), ethnic origins,

national origins, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age;

o material scope: employment (broadly defined to include occupation, vocational

training etc.); education; housing; provision of goods, facilities and services;

membership organisations; functions of public authorities.

NI

 The Disability Discrimination Act 19954 (DDA):

o adopted 08.11.1995;

o grounds covered: disability;

3 Equality Act 2010, 08.04.2010 (EqA), available at: www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents.

4 Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), 08.11.1995, available at:

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1995/50/contents.