Pub Date : 2022-04-18DOI: 10.1177/13582291221088423
A. Barrow
This article critiques Hong Kong’s Sex Discrimination Ordinance (SDO) as it turns 25, considering its achievements and impact, whilst highlighting continuing challenges for its operation. Although the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), the statutory body responsible for investigating and conciliating discrimination complaints, has promoted the ordinance and disseminated evidence-based research on sex discrimination, sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination, the limited number of litigated cases has inhibited the educative impact of how discriminatory practices are perpetrated across a range of settings including in employment and the provision of goods and services. Politically contentious exemptions persist, and recent law reform does not go far enough in addressing the limitations of the SDO. Drawing on case law and qualitative research interviews with members of the EOC, scholars and non-governmental organisations, this paper questions whether Hong Kong’s SDO is coming of age. The article concludes that despite it 25-year history, there is much works that remains to be done to enhance societal understandings of gender equality.
{"title":"Hong Kong’s sex discrimination ordinance at twenty-five: Achievements, legislative change and continuing challenges","authors":"A. Barrow","doi":"10.1177/13582291221088423","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13582291221088423","url":null,"abstract":"This article critiques Hong Kong’s Sex Discrimination Ordinance (SDO) as it turns 25, considering its achievements and impact, whilst highlighting continuing challenges for its operation. Although the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), the statutory body responsible for investigating and conciliating discrimination complaints, has promoted the ordinance and disseminated evidence-based research on sex discrimination, sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination, the limited number of litigated cases has inhibited the educative impact of how discriminatory practices are perpetrated across a range of settings including in employment and the provision of goods and services. Politically contentious exemptions persist, and recent law reform does not go far enough in addressing the limitations of the SDO. Drawing on case law and qualitative research interviews with members of the EOC, scholars and non-governmental organisations, this paper questions whether Hong Kong’s SDO is coming of age. The article concludes that despite it 25-year history, there is much works that remains to be done to enhance societal understandings of gender equality.","PeriodicalId":42250,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Discrimination and the Law","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46866229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-28DOI: 10.1177/13582291221081308
Marie Spinoy, K. Willems
In September 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of G.L. v. Italy found the Italian authorities in violation of their Convention obligations towards a child with disabilities. More specifically, as they had taken insufficient action to secure the implementation of support to which the learner had a legal right, Italy had violated its obligations under Article 2 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (‘FP’, right to education) combined with Article 14 European Convention on Human Rights (‘ECHR’, prohibition of discrimination) (para. 70). The judgment appears to be a cause for joy amongst those advocating for inclusive education. Yet the ECtHR’s current reasoning might not only herald positive developments in this area. In line with some previous cases, the Court uses Article 14 as a stepping stone for the state obligation to provide inclusive education. In considering reasonable accommodations through the lens of inclusive education, the Court conflates the two analyses. These entangled analyses under Article 14, as applied in G.L. and in the prior judgement of Stoian, could create negative incentives for states to draft legal provisions concerning inclusive education and take the necessary steps for implementation there.
{"title":"G.L. v. Italy: The ambiguous role of article 14 European court of human rights in inclusive education cases","authors":"Marie Spinoy, K. Willems","doi":"10.1177/13582291221081308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13582291221081308","url":null,"abstract":"In September 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of G.L. v. Italy found the Italian authorities in violation of their Convention obligations towards a child with disabilities. More specifically, as they had taken insufficient action to secure the implementation of support to which the learner had a legal right, Italy had violated its obligations under Article 2 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (‘FP’, right to education) combined with Article 14 European Convention on Human Rights (‘ECHR’, prohibition of discrimination) (para. 70). The judgment appears to be a cause for joy amongst those advocating for inclusive education. Yet the ECtHR’s current reasoning might not only herald positive developments in this area. In line with some previous cases, the Court uses Article 14 as a stepping stone for the state obligation to provide inclusive education. In considering reasonable accommodations through the lens of inclusive education, the Court conflates the two analyses. These entangled analyses under Article 14, as applied in G.L. and in the prior judgement of Stoian, could create negative incentives for states to draft legal provisions concerning inclusive education and take the necessary steps for implementation there.","PeriodicalId":42250,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Discrimination and the Law","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45035200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.1177/13582291221083757
Nicole Busby, Grace James
My Project, The Celebrity Gangster: Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, will seek to understand the motives behind his goals and what he accomplished during his lifetime. A strong focus of the paper will be on the background and the rather exquisite life that Bugsy led. Bugsy’s wild and unpredictable life will provide as a crucial point of understanding as to how a mobster/gangster lived. Depictions within film/tv shows have often shaped most people’s understandings of mobsters and have formed countless myths. I will be utilizing various sources such as the Moffett Library, digital libraries, databases, and digitalized newspapers. The Moffett Library will provide a large amount of scholarly material related to the subject of crime in the twentieth century. Digital libraries will allow access to material not immediately available on campus. Both sources will be consistently used throughout the research paper as it will provide the core understanding of Bugsy along with this era of crime. The main focuses will be to provide an understandable yet enthralling paper that examines a point in American history that is often glossed over by movies and tv shows. perfect there is much more to be uncovered to fully understand the life of Bugsy. Bugsy retained a significant amount during his life over the decades would become polluted with misinformation. will a clear and concise understanding of the celebrity gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. and the design of preparation for a professional recording of solo piano music that heightens our awareness of human rights and social justice issues. This presentation will provide a verbal summary of her work plus a performance chosen from compositions selected for the recording. This research examines the relationship between consumers’ engagement in moral grandstanding behaviors -- the use of public discourse about morality- and/or politically-laden topics to self-aggrandize -- and their experience of downstream conflict. Over two studies employing the use of both experimental design and linguistic inquiry word count (LIWC), this research provides support for the context in which moral grandstanding is likely to occur and establishes the status-seeking motivation that underlies moral grandstanding behaviors as the mechanism through which grandstanders’ increased experiences of downstream conflict occur. Finally, this research provides evidence that consumers can self-regulate their moral grandstanding behaviors through interventions that provide them with education about moral grandstanding and its deleterious effects and asks them to consider alternative behaviors that might have a greater impact on the morality- and politically-laden topics about which they are passionate. (IRB: 20100801) propose a new design of a the and constraints of a horizontal wind The new design for a The aim of this project is to design a robust network of ground-based and air-based autonomous vehicles capable of efficiently accomplishing pseudo-inte
{"title":"Editorial Spring 2022","authors":"Nicole Busby, Grace James","doi":"10.1177/13582291221083757","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13582291221083757","url":null,"abstract":"My Project, The Celebrity Gangster: Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, will seek to understand the motives behind his goals and what he accomplished during his lifetime. A strong focus of the paper will be on the background and the rather exquisite life that Bugsy led. Bugsy’s wild and unpredictable life will provide as a crucial point of understanding as to how a mobster/gangster lived. Depictions within film/tv shows have often shaped most people’s understandings of mobsters and have formed countless myths. I will be utilizing various sources such as the Moffett Library, digital libraries, databases, and digitalized newspapers. The Moffett Library will provide a large amount of scholarly material related to the subject of crime in the twentieth century. Digital libraries will allow access to material not immediately available on campus. Both sources will be consistently used throughout the research paper as it will provide the core understanding of Bugsy along with this era of crime. The main focuses will be to provide an understandable yet enthralling paper that examines a point in American history that is often glossed over by movies and tv shows. perfect there is much more to be uncovered to fully understand the life of Bugsy. Bugsy retained a significant amount during his life over the decades would become polluted with misinformation. will a clear and concise understanding of the celebrity gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. and the design of preparation for a professional recording of solo piano music that heightens our awareness of human rights and social justice issues. This presentation will provide a verbal summary of her work plus a performance chosen from compositions selected for the recording. This research examines the relationship between consumers’ engagement in moral grandstanding behaviors -- the use of public discourse about morality- and/or politically-laden topics to self-aggrandize -- and their experience of downstream conflict. Over two studies employing the use of both experimental design and linguistic inquiry word count (LIWC), this research provides support for the context in which moral grandstanding is likely to occur and establishes the status-seeking motivation that underlies moral grandstanding behaviors as the mechanism through which grandstanders’ increased experiences of downstream conflict occur. Finally, this research provides evidence that consumers can self-regulate their moral grandstanding behaviors through interventions that provide them with education about moral grandstanding and its deleterious effects and asks them to consider alternative behaviors that might have a greater impact on the morality- and politically-laden topics about which they are passionate. (IRB: 20100801) propose a new design of a the and constraints of a horizontal wind The new design for a The aim of this project is to design a robust network of ground-based and air-based autonomous vehicles capable of efficiently accomplishing pseudo-inte","PeriodicalId":42250,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Discrimination and the Law","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45883056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.1177/13582291211070227
Gauri Pillai
In April 2021, the Supreme Court of India decided Nitisha v Union of India, holding that the gender neutral hiring procedure adopted by the Indian Army indirectly discriminated against women officers by disproportionately excluding them from promotion. This effect was experienced due to systemic discrimination against women built into the appointment criteria. To redress systemic discrimination, the State was required not only to abstain from direct or indirect discrimination but also to positively act to bring in structural change. Nitisha makes significant contributions to developing the constitutional understanding of non-discrimination. It identifies the essential nature of discrimination as systemic rather than individualistic and sets out how systemic discrimination operates and can be proved. In recognising indirect discrimination, it lays down a two-stage test to establish it. Crucially, it affirmatively holds, for the first time, that the non-discrimination guarantee can compel State action in redressing systemic discrimination. Nitisha leaves certain questions unanswered: the test for justifying indirect discrimination, the doctrinal reading of the non-discrimination guarantee and the legitimacy of using comparative law. However, seeing Nitisha as one chapter of a constitutional conversation allows us to appreciate its contributions while holding the space open for future judicial efforts at constitutional meaning-making.
{"title":"A continuing constitutional conversation: Locating Nitisha","authors":"Gauri Pillai","doi":"10.1177/13582291211070227","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13582291211070227","url":null,"abstract":"In April 2021, the Supreme Court of India decided Nitisha v Union of India, holding that the gender neutral hiring procedure adopted by the Indian Army indirectly discriminated against women officers by disproportionately excluding them from promotion. This effect was experienced due to systemic discrimination against women built into the appointment criteria. To redress systemic discrimination, the State was required not only to abstain from direct or indirect discrimination but also to positively act to bring in structural change. Nitisha makes significant contributions to developing the constitutional understanding of non-discrimination. It identifies the essential nature of discrimination as systemic rather than individualistic and sets out how systemic discrimination operates and can be proved. In recognising indirect discrimination, it lays down a two-stage test to establish it. Crucially, it affirmatively holds, for the first time, that the non-discrimination guarantee can compel State action in redressing systemic discrimination. Nitisha leaves certain questions unanswered: the test for justifying indirect discrimination, the doctrinal reading of the non-discrimination guarantee and the legitimacy of using comparative law. However, seeing Nitisha as one chapter of a constitutional conversation allows us to appreciate its contributions while holding the space open for future judicial efforts at constitutional meaning-making.","PeriodicalId":42250,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Discrimination and the Law","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46469038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-31DOI: 10.1177/13582291211062363
Vandita Khanna
This note analyses the recent landmark case of Lt Col Nitisha v Union of India, dated 25 March 2021, where the Supreme Court of India formally recognised the concept of indirect discrimination under Articles 14 and 15(1) of the Indian Constitution. Despite the favourable outcome and conceptual leaps in acknowledging that indirect discrimination is closely tied to substantive equality, the reasoning in the judgment does not fully cohere with these conceptual insights. This note critically examines how Nitisha poses barriers to addressing indirect discrimination with a substantive equality lens, particularly because of an intent-based divide between direct and indirect discrimination, a causal requirement between the norm and disparate impact, adoption of mirror comparators and the lack of clarity on justifications.
{"title":"Indirect discrimination and substantive equality in Nitisha: Easier said than done under Indian constitutional jurisprudence","authors":"Vandita Khanna","doi":"10.1177/13582291211062363","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13582291211062363","url":null,"abstract":"This note analyses the recent landmark case of Lt Col Nitisha v Union of India, dated 25 March 2021, where the Supreme Court of India formally recognised the concept of indirect discrimination under Articles 14 and 15(1) of the Indian Constitution. Despite the favourable outcome and conceptual leaps in acknowledging that indirect discrimination is closely tied to substantive equality, the reasoning in the judgment does not fully cohere with these conceptual insights. This note critically examines how Nitisha poses barriers to addressing indirect discrimination with a substantive equality lens, particularly because of an intent-based divide between direct and indirect discrimination, a causal requirement between the norm and disparate impact, adoption of mirror comparators and the lack of clarity on justifications.","PeriodicalId":42250,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Discrimination and the Law","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45258682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-29DOI: 10.1177/13582291211070223
Ulaş Sunata, Aslı Makaracı Başak, Seda Öktem Çevik
Despite recent advances in transgender rights in European countries, some legal systems still have barriers such as obligatory diagnosis, sterilization, and medical interventions and incorporating societal acceptance and public order into their discourse. This study dealing with the regime of legal gender recognition in Turkey first reveals critical reciprocating historical developments in national legal regulations for affirming trans identities. Then, the recent conditions laid down by the 2017 Constitutional Court judgments stating that transgender people do not require permanent sterilization any more but require sex reassignment surgery for legal gender change are evaluated. Moreover, this paper explains that while the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights partly reflects the current Turkish legislation, it is not a big step for transgender rights. The findings also underline that the new Turkish regulations appear reformist but are indeed strong measures for legal consistency to solve the dilemma in the previous period in order to maintain the status quo.
{"title":"Legal gender recognition in Turkey","authors":"Ulaş Sunata, Aslı Makaracı Başak, Seda Öktem Çevik","doi":"10.1177/13582291211070223","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13582291211070223","url":null,"abstract":"Despite recent advances in transgender rights in European countries, some legal systems still have barriers such as obligatory diagnosis, sterilization, and medical interventions and incorporating societal acceptance and public order into their discourse. This study dealing with the regime of legal gender recognition in Turkey first reveals critical reciprocating historical developments in national legal regulations for affirming trans identities. Then, the recent conditions laid down by the 2017 Constitutional Court judgments stating that transgender people do not require permanent sterilization any more but require sex reassignment surgery for legal gender change are evaluated. Moreover, this paper explains that while the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights partly reflects the current Turkish legislation, it is not a big step for transgender rights. The findings also underline that the new Turkish regulations appear reformist but are indeed strong measures for legal consistency to solve the dilemma in the previous period in order to maintain the status quo.","PeriodicalId":42250,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Discrimination and the Law","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45775317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-30DOI: 10.1177/13582291211060088
N. Busby, Grace James
{"title":"Winter 2021","authors":"N. Busby, Grace James","doi":"10.1177/13582291211060088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13582291211060088","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42250,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Discrimination and the Law","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49260273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-07DOI: 10.1177/13582291211043420
Natalie Alkiviadou, U. Belavusau
Adopting a comparative perspective, this article examines legal means and practices of challenging homophobic speech in European and U.S. law. This exercise revolves around the study of major cases concerning homophobic speech from the law of the European Court of Human Rights and broader legal framework within the Council of Europe (the CoE), the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) as well as the United States Supreme Court (along with a broader scrutiny of U.S. law in comparative perspective with European (CoE and EU law) in recent years. The article concludes that the concepts of (1) hate speech (in constitutional, administrative and criminal settings) (2) direct discrimination and (3) harassment (in labour and anti-discrimination law) will be central in the strategic litigation of LGBT organizations seeking to redress the climate of homophobia via various legal avenues in both Europe and the U.S. While in the settings of European law, all three concepts – depending on the context – can benefit victims of homophobia in their judicial redress, U.S. law offers coherent protection in its employment law framework, even though this remains in need of further strengthening.
{"title":"Rien que des mots: Counteracting homophobic speech in European and U.S. law","authors":"Natalie Alkiviadou, U. Belavusau","doi":"10.1177/13582291211043420","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13582291211043420","url":null,"abstract":"Adopting a comparative perspective, this article examines legal means and practices of challenging homophobic speech in European and U.S. law. This exercise revolves around the study of major cases concerning homophobic speech from the law of the European Court of Human Rights and broader legal framework within the Council of Europe (the CoE), the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) as well as the United States Supreme Court (along with a broader scrutiny of U.S. law in comparative perspective with European (CoE and EU law) in recent years. The article concludes that the concepts of (1) hate speech (in constitutional, administrative and criminal settings) (2) direct discrimination and (3) harassment (in labour and anti-discrimination law) will be central in the strategic litigation of LGBT organizations seeking to redress the climate of homophobia via various legal avenues in both Europe and the U.S. While in the settings of European law, all three concepts – depending on the context – can benefit victims of homophobia in their judicial redress, U.S. law offers coherent protection in its employment law framework, even though this remains in need of further strengthening.","PeriodicalId":42250,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Discrimination and the Law","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47820026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-20DOI: 10.1177/13582291211043416
Dumisani J Ngoma
Zambia has within the last two decades enacted several pieces of legislation aimed at enhancing equality in the labour market and the workplace. However, despite being one of the countries that has been severely devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Zambia does not yet have specific legislation targeted at HIV-related stigma and discrimination in the labour market and workplace. Apart from the general prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of health or social status, it remains to be seen whether concepts such as reasonable accommodation have a place in the fight against discrimination and stigma of HIV/AIDS in the Zambian workplace. The purpose of this article is not to argue for the enactment of HIV/AIDS specific legislation in Zambia but to instead argue that despite the absence of such legislation, HIV/AIDS discrimination and stigma can be addressed within the context of the Country’s existing disability discrimination law. The arguments advanced in this article are considered largely within the context of the Zambian High Court case of Stanley Kingaipe & Another v The Attorney General.
{"title":"Combating workplace discrimination on the basis of HIV status through disability law in Zambia","authors":"Dumisani J Ngoma","doi":"10.1177/13582291211043416","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13582291211043416","url":null,"abstract":"Zambia has within the last two decades enacted several pieces of legislation aimed at enhancing equality in the labour market and the workplace. However, despite being one of the countries that has been severely devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Zambia does not yet have specific legislation targeted at HIV-related stigma and discrimination in the labour market and workplace. Apart from the general prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of health or social status, it remains to be seen whether concepts such as reasonable accommodation have a place in the fight against discrimination and stigma of HIV/AIDS in the Zambian workplace. The purpose of this article is not to argue for the enactment of HIV/AIDS specific legislation in Zambia but to instead argue that despite the absence of such legislation, HIV/AIDS discrimination and stigma can be addressed within the context of the Country’s existing disability discrimination law. The arguments advanced in this article are considered largely within the context of the Zambian High Court case of Stanley Kingaipe & Another v The Attorney General.","PeriodicalId":42250,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Discrimination and the Law","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41437961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Workplace equality is an important and integral component of firms’ corporate social responsibility. We argue that firms need to expend substantial resources to mitigate potential LGBT litigation risk or accommodate actual litigation costs, and absorb labor adjustment costs associated with voluntarily adopted or legally imposed LGBT nondiscrimination, leading to a downward adjustment in financial leverage in equilibrium. Consistently, we find a negative association between firms’ Corporate Equality Index scores and financial leverage. To sharpen causality, we use a difference-in-differences design that relies on staggered passages of state LGBT employment nondiscrimination laws. After ensuring exogeneity of these state laws, we show that firms respond to their passages with a reduction in financial leverage. This effect is more pronounced in firms that are labor intensive, prone to mass layoffs, having experienced past LGBT lawsuits, and financially distressed. Affected firms also experience elevated operating leverage and loan spread. We conclude that firms adjust capital structure to accommodate the cost associated with LGBT employment nondiscrimination.
{"title":"LGBT Employment Nondiscrimination and Capital Structure","authors":"Xiaoli Hu, Li Huang, Oliver Zhen Li, Zilong Zhang","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3754114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3754114","url":null,"abstract":"Workplace equality is an important and integral component of firms’ corporate social responsibility. We argue that firms need to expend substantial resources to mitigate potential LGBT litigation risk or accommodate actual litigation costs, and absorb labor adjustment costs associated with voluntarily adopted or legally imposed LGBT nondiscrimination, leading to a downward adjustment in financial leverage in equilibrium. Consistently, we find a negative association between firms’ Corporate Equality Index scores and financial leverage. To sharpen causality, we use a difference-in-differences design that relies on staggered passages of state LGBT employment nondiscrimination laws. After ensuring exogeneity of these state laws, we show that firms respond to their passages with a reduction in financial leverage. This effect is more pronounced in firms that are labor intensive, prone to mass layoffs, having experienced past LGBT lawsuits, and financially distressed. Affected firms also experience elevated operating leverage and loan spread. We conclude that firms adjust capital structure to accommodate the cost associated with LGBT employment nondiscrimination.","PeriodicalId":42250,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Discrimination and the Law","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73450922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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