European Anti-Discrimination Law: The American Perspective

This contribution provides an overview of what American anti-discrimination lawyers from the United States would and would not recognize when looking at the complex, multilevel framework on anti-discrimination law as it has developed in Europe, thanks also due to EU law. It argues that there is a whole set of elements ranging from grounds of discrimination, equality bodies and legal and academic debates which American colleagues would recognize. At the same time, it also argues that on other aspects parallels would not be as obvious. On the one hand, European anti-discrimination law has gone further than its American counterpart, especially with regard to indirect discrimination and quotas and this also thanks to the international legal framework and case law. On the other hand, a certain lack of anti-discrimination law culture in most European countries, and the difficulties to deal with race and the acceptance of Muslim headscarf and veil bans due to lack of reasonable accommodation on the grounds of religion could be mentioned here as consisting in the lesser developed side of European anti-discrimination law.