On Uses, Mis-Uses and Non-Uses of Intersectionality Before the European Court of Justice (ECJ): The ECJ Rulings Parris (C-433/15), Achbita (C-157/15) and Bougnaoui (C-188/15) as a Bermuda Triangle?

International Journal of Discrimination and the Law (Special issue edited by Ania Zbyszewska and Sara Benedi-Lahuerta, Forthcoming)

CETLS Online Paper Series, Vol 7 (3), 2018

Queen's University Belfast Law Research Paper

24 Pages Posted: 2 Jul 2018 Last revised: 25 Oct 2018

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: June 1, 2018

Abstract

Intersectionality, frequently used by political scientists (Walby & Verloo, 2012) sociologists (Winker & Degele, 2011) and anthropologists (Hancock, 2015) as a highly abstract concept, originated as a critique of US courts’ ignorance of discrimination against black women specifically (Crenshaw, 1989). That ignorance emerged in cases such as DeGraffenreid, in which the claimants challenged a collective redundancy scheme resulting in dismissing most black women on grounds of indirect discrimination. The court refused to recognise black women as a category of relevance and did not find any discrimination be-cause the scheme did not impact disproportionally on white women or black men. This paper discusses three ECJ rulings decided between 24 November 2016 and 14 March 2017, which similarly failed to acknowledge intersectional discrimination, thus inviting national courts to deny recognition and adequate remedies to claimants. The first case concerning the pension claims of two white homosexual men (Parris, C-443/15) can be qualified as the Court’s “DeGraffenreid moment” because it refused to recognise discrimination in a case where the intersection of being over 63 and homosexual was the basis of exclusion from a survivor’s pension, while neither age nor sexual orientation in isolation were the reason of that exclusion. The two more recent cases (Achbita, C-157/15, Bougnaoui C-188/15) seem to constitute instances of surprising ignorance of racializing Muslim women through penalising them for wearing a headscarf: The Court, following its AGs, refused to protect women against dismissal on grounds of that garment on the basis of extensive justifications for religious discrimination, thus ignoring a pervasive exclusion on the intersection of gender and ascribed race. The article criticises all three rulings with a twofold argument. First, it is submitted that anti-discrimination law should and can recognise intersectional discrimination without losing its focus by a reconceptualization around the nodes gender, race and disability. Second, it is argued that EU anti-discrimination law can be interpreted to encompass this concept by using a purposive interpretation.

Keywords: Intersectionality, European Union, Anti-Discrimination Law, Racialization of Muslim, Gendered Racialization, European Court of Justice

Suggested Citation

Schiek, Dagmar G., On Uses, Mis-Uses and Non-Uses of Intersectionality Before the European Court of Justice (ECJ): The ECJ Rulings Parris (C-433/15), Achbita (C-157/15) and Bougnaoui (C-188/15) as a Bermuda Triangle? (June 1, 2018). International Journal of Discrimination and the Law (Special issue edited by Ania Zbyszewska and Sara Benedi-Lahuerta, Forthcoming), CETLS Online Paper Series, Vol 7 (3), 2018, Queen's University Belfast Law Research Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3196036 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3196036

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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