Category Archives: Discrimination
‘But-for What? When Anti-Discrimination Law Tried to Borrow from Tort Law and Missed Something’, Robin Dembroff and Issa Kohler-Hausmann, University of Toronto and online, 20 September 2024
The talk will be a hybrid talk, taking place in person at the University of Toronto Centre for Ethics (15 Devonshire Place), with a synchronous broadcast on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/live/FbP8fecnE-E. Courts and commentators often define discrimination in causal terms. Moreover, they often claim that the causal definition of discrimination tracks the role that causality plays establishing […]
‘Removing the Scarlet Letter’
Yvette NA Pappoe, ‘The Scarlet Letter “E”: How Tenancy Screening Policies Exacerbate Housing Inequity for Evicted Black Women’, 103 Boston University Law Review 269 (2023). When considering what qualifications a tenant should have to be eligible to lease a unit, landlords often consider tenant screening reports that give an account of a tenant’s income, credit […]
Katherine Macfarlane, ‘The Fundamental Alteration Fallacy’
ABSTRACT A university may deny a disabled student’s reasonable accommodation request if the university decides that the accommodation would fundamentally alter an academic program. In evaluating the fundamental alteration defense, courts defer to universities’ academic expertise regarding their own programs. This Article argues that deference is misplaced. First, it traces the origins of the fundamental […]
Banks, Taylor and Goldblatt, ‘A lounge of one’s own: Art, gender, discrimination and the law’
ABSTRACT In this essay, the authors consider the recent discrimination law decision of the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in relation to the ‘Ladies Lounge’, an artwork by Kirsha Kaechele at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart. The article first considers the question of whether there was unlawful direct discrimination before turning […]
Just Published: The Right to be Oneself by Guido Alpa
What does the right to be oneself entail? And how is it manifest in our understanding of the law? The leading commentator on this subject explores these questions, taking an ambitious and multi-faceted approach. To answer them, he draws on private law, jurisprudence, constitutional law, as well as history, art and literature. This treatise, translated […]
Simon Sun, ‘Sticks and Stones: A Three-Pronged Approach to Redressing Racial Discrimination through Tort Law’
INTRODUCTION Ireland’s equality laws are primarily imposed by the Equal Status Acts (ESA) and the Employment Equality Acts (EEA), which despite being heralded as progressive two decades ago, have since faltered in a pandemic that has exacerbated many of the inequalities in Irish society. In particular, the legislation fails to address intersectional discrimination by requiring […]
Seth Owens, ‘Putting a Price on Your Child: Promoting Resiliency and Equality in Damage Awards for Children’
ABSTRACT Could you calculate the monetary value you would accept in lieu of your child or the value of their loss after suffering a permanently disabling injury? In tort, this is the precise function of a damage award – to monetarily compensate the child for the value of their loss. Would you consider the child’s […]
‘Public Humiliation meets Private Law’
Hila Keren, ‘Beyond Discrimination: Market Humiliation and Private Law’, 95 University of Colorado Law Review 87 (2024); Hila Keren, ‘Market Humiliation’, 56 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 565 (2023). So many ways to suffer, so few of them redressed by the law of torts. We who teach the course cover a short list. First […]
Mateusz Grochowski, ‘Freedom of Speech, Consumer Protection and the Duty to Contract’
ABSTRACT Despite this plethora of accounts, certain aspects of the liaison between fundamental rights and private law are still a riddle. One such area is the relationship between consumer protection and freedom of expression. In an interesting turn of events, three high courts on either side of the Atlantic grappled with this problem almost in […]
Blair Bullock, ‘Frivolous Floodgate Fears’
ABSTRACT When rejecting plaintiff-friendly liability standards, courts often cite a fear of opening the floodgates of litigation. Namely, courts point to either a desire to protect the docket of federal courts or a burden on the executive branch. But there is little empirical evidence exploring whether the adoption of a stricter standard can, in fact, […]