Favalli, Silvia and Ferri, Delia
(2016)
Defining Disability in the EU Non-Discrimination Legislation:
Judicial Activism and Legislative Restraints.
European Public Law, 22 (3).
pp. 1-24.
ISSN 1354-3725
Abstract
To date EU anti-discrimination legislation, particularly the Employment Equality Directive
(Directive 2000/78/EC), does not provide any clear definition of disability as a ground of
discrimination. In the last few years, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has
attempted to fill this gap and discussed the concept of disability in several decisions, in the
attempt to provide a definition of the ground of disability. The ratification by the European
Union of the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), has led to a
clear overruling in the case law: the Court shifted from the medical model to the social model
of disability. The UNCRPD now represents a milestone for the CJEU, which recognised that
a duty arises to define disability in line with the social model, under the principle of
consistent interpretation. Against this background, this article discusses CJEU case law, and
compares and contrasts the judicial activism of the Court with the cautious approach
adopted by the European Commission in the proposal for a new non-discrimination directive.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Defining Disability; EU Non-Discrimination Legislation;
Judicial Activism; Legislative Restraints; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Law |
| Item ID: |
11702 |
| Depositing User: |
Delia Ferri
|
| Date Deposited: |
14 Nov 2019 10:46 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
European Public Law |
| Publisher: |
Kluwer Law International |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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