Lol, Piera --- "The Reasonableness Principle in the European Court of Justice Age Discrimination Cases" [2011] ELECD 888; in Moreau, Marie-Ange (ed), "Before and After the Economic Crisis" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Before and After the Economic Crisis

Editor(s): Moreau, Marie-Ange

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849809924

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: The Reasonableness Principle in the European Court of Justice Age Discrimination Cases

Author(s): Lol, Piera

Number of pages: 14

Extract:

9. The reasonableness principle in
the European Court of Justice age
discrimination cases
Piera Loi

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter we will analyse the reasonableness principle in age dis-
crimination cases in the light of the principles of the European Directive
2000/78/CE and the ECJ case law, which undoubtedly represent a new era
and an innovative step in European discrimination law.
As in many European law systems (before the adoption of the Council
Directive 2000/78/EC) age, unlike sex or race, was not expressly defined
as a discriminating factor. Besides that, the previous anti-discrimination
legislation was structured by way of identifying a discriminating factor
and the consequent obligation of removing this factor from the decision-
making process (Swift, 2006, 228), whereas the discriminating factor is
also capable of identifying a minority group to be protected. The innova-
tive feature of the anti-discrimination law complying with the Directive
2000/78/EC relies on the fact that some discriminating factors like age,
since they represent a quality common to all, do not identify a minor-
ity group that should be protected (Fredman and Spencer, 2000, 37),
especially in the case of age discrimination at work (Sargeant, 2006, 79)
and that the decision-making process which refers to them is apparently
objective. What is required by the Directive 2000/78/EC is then to verify
if the decision-making criteria that appear objective are in actual fact age-
related and the criteria have to be removed only if they ...