Age Discrimination Before the Court of Justice - Conceptual and Theoretical Issues

Common Market Law Review, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 777-799, 201

27 Pages Posted: 25 Sep 2011 Last revised: 24 Apr 2015

See all articles by Dagmar Schiek

Dagmar Schiek

Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin; University College Cork - School of Law; Queen's University Belfast - School of Law; Queen's University Belfast - School of Law; University of Bremen (- 10/1999); University of Leeds - up to 10/2014

Date Written: July 4, 2011

Abstract

Although only addressed by EU law from 2000, age discrimination has been the theme of quite a few cases before the Court of Justice, with a high proportion decided by the Grand Chamber recently. This is due to the conceptual and theoretical challenges that a prohibition to use age as differentiating factor poses. After all, age has been an important stratifier used to synchronize life courses through welfare State regimes in Europe. Partly due to these traditions, there are stereotypes associated with old age, and young age, that in turn lead to disadvantage in employment. For the same reason, age discrimination frequently intersects with discrimination on other grounds, such as sex, race or disability. EU legislation on age discrimination has sought to accommodate the traditional role of age in employment policy by allowing wider justifications than for other forms of discrimination. This leads to contradictions within the larger field of discrimination law, which may even threaten to dilute its efficiency. This article analyses how recent case law of the Court of Justice, and in particular its Grand Chamber, deals with the theoretical challenges posed by these conflicting demands on age discrimination and on discrimination law at large. .

Keywords: Discrimination law, age discrimination, EU law and policy, ECJ

Suggested Citation

Schiek, Dagmar G., Age Discrimination Before the Court of Justice - Conceptual and Theoretical Issues (July 4, 2011). Common Market Law Review, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 777-799, 201, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1878462

Dagmar G. Schiek (Contact Author)

Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin ( email )

Belfield
Dublin 4
Ireland

HOME PAGE: http://https://people.ucd.ie/dagmar.schiek1

University College Cork - School of Law ( email )

School of Law (-10/2023)
Aras na Laoi, College Road
Cork, County Cork
Ireland

Queen's University Belfast - School of Law ( email )

School of Law
Queen's University Belfast
Belfast BT7 1NN, BT7 1NN
Northern Ireland

Queen's University Belfast - School of Law ( email )

School of Law
Queen's University Belfast
Belfast BT7 1NN, BT7 1NN
Northern Ireland

University of Bremen (- 10/1999)

Bremen
Germany

University of Leeds - up to 10/2014 ( email )

Leeds, LS2 9JT
United Kingdom

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