Editorial
| Published date | 01 March 1999 |
| Date | 01 March 1999 |
| DOI | 10.1177/135822919900300401 |
International Journal
of
Discrimination and the Law, 1999, Vol. 3,
pp.
225
1358-2291/99 $10
© 1999 A B Academic Publishers. Printed
in
Great Britain
EDITORIAL
In
this issue Helen Meenan examines age discrimination in the UK,
an area not previously considered in
the
journal.
She
focuses
on
ageism in employment
and
reviews the
UK's
current voluntary and
educative approach to this problem. She considers its deficiencies,
including the problem
of
lack
of
enforcement.
She
considers whether
legislation would be an effective
and
alternative means
of
redress
under existing
UK
law.
In
view
of
the ageing population, the need
for effective means
of
combating age discrimination needs to
be
addressed.
Tiyanjana
Maluwa
examines the efforts being made by some
Southern African countries to implement the principle
of
gender
equality.
The
recent constitutions
of
Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and
South Africa all contain bills
of
rights, entrenching fundamental
human rights, including the right to gender equality and non-
discrimination. Attempts have also been made to further achieve
gender equality· through judicial interpretation by engaging and
incorporating international human rights law into the interpretative
process.
He
argues that the protection
of
gender equality will remain
ineffective unless the constitutional and legislative intent is matched
by real structural changes in power relations in these societies.
Samantha Besson analyses the philosophical and economic
foundations
of
anti-discrimination law. She considers the apparent
antithesis between the fundamental private autonomy
of
the contrac-
tual parties and the right
of
a party not to
be
discriminated against.
She
argues that anti-discrimination law may lead to efficient results
by speeding up the market process.
She
seeks to reconcile anti-
discrimination policy and economic critiques in favour
of
freedom
of
contract, by focusing
on
the social market theory
of
contract which
acknowledges both the value
of
autonomy in private relationships
and
the
harm
which
can
result from deprivation
of
one's
right to equal
opportunities.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Aileen McColgan,
who is retiring as Case Notes and Reviews Editor, for
her
support for
the journal over the past five years.
To continue reading
Request your trial