{"title":"Does the law think that black lives matter? A reflection upon the role of the public sector equality duty in promoting racial equality before the law","authors":"Michael Abiodun Olatokun","doi":"10.1080/20508840.2021.1909367","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Racism is often perceived as a conscious choice an individual makes to abuse another, or an explicit statement that a group of people are inferior to another. Less often is racism construed as a product of institutional culture. This inability to accurately depict the problem has stunted the ability of lawmakers to craft legislation that will adequately combat racism. This paper explores attempts in the recent past that have provided remedies for those subject to racism rather than addressing its systemic causes. S149 of the Equality Act in the United Kingdom bucked this trend by obligating public authorities to take proactive steps to eliminate discrimination. This paper examines the challenges the provision has faced, explores how it could work to prevent racism in the coming years, and argues that it remains important today.","PeriodicalId":42455,"journal":{"name":"Theory and Practice of Legislation","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20508840.2021.1909367","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Theory and Practice of Legislation","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2021.1909367","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"LAW","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT Racism is often perceived as a conscious choice an individual makes to abuse another, or an explicit statement that a group of people are inferior to another. Less often is racism construed as a product of institutional culture. This inability to accurately depict the problem has stunted the ability of lawmakers to craft legislation that will adequately combat racism. This paper explores attempts in the recent past that have provided remedies for those subject to racism rather than addressing its systemic causes. S149 of the Equality Act in the United Kingdom bucked this trend by obligating public authorities to take proactive steps to eliminate discrimination. This paper examines the challenges the provision has faced, explores how it could work to prevent racism in the coming years, and argues that it remains important today.
期刊介绍:
The Theory and Practice of Legislation aims to offer an international and interdisciplinary forum for the examination of legislation. The focus of the journal, which succeeds the former title Legisprudence, remains with legislation in its broadest sense. Legislation is seen as both process and product, reflection of theoretical assumptions and a skill. The journal addresses formal legislation, and its alternatives (such as covenants, regulation by non-state actors etc.). The editors welcome articles on systematic (as opposed to historical) issues, including drafting techniques, the introduction of open standards, evidence-based drafting, pre- and post-legislative scrutiny for effectiveness and efficiency, the utility and necessity of codification, IT in legislation, the legitimacy of legislation in view of fundamental principles and rights, law and language, and the link between legislator and judge. Comparative and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. But dogmatic descriptions of positive law are outside the scope of the journal. The journal offers a combination of themed issues and general issues. All articles are submitted to double blind review.