Exponential Inequalities Equality Law in Times of Crisis

This thoughtfully edited volume explores the operation of equality and discrimination law in times of crisis. It aims to understand how existing inequalities are exacerbated in crises and whether equality law has the tools to understand and address this contingency.

Experience during the COVID-19 crisis shows that the pandemic has acted as a catalyst for 'exponential inequalities' related to racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, and ableism. Yet, the field of equality law (which is meant to be addressing such discrimination or inequality) has had little immediate relevance in mitigating these exponential inequalities. This is despite the fact that countries like the UK have a rather recent and state-of-the-art legislation in the field, namely the Equality Act 2010.

Exponential Inequalities offers readers an understanding of how these inequalities came to be and how crises such as the global pandemic, the climate emergency, or the economic downturn, can exacerbate an already untenable situation. It illuminates both the structural and the conceptual, as well as the practical and doctrinal difficulties currently experienced in equality law, and discusses whether or not equality law even has the tools to both understand and then address this contingency.

Written by a team of internationally recognized experts, Exponential Inequalities provides a comparative perspective on the functioning of equality laws across a range of contexts and jurisdictions and represents an essential read for scholars and policy makers alike.

Shreya Atrey, Associate Professor in International Human Rights Law, University of Oxford,Sandra Fredman, Professor of Law, University of Oxford

Shreya Atrey is an Associate Professor in International Human Rights Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, and is based at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. Her research is on discrimination law, feminist theory, poverty, and disability law. Her monograph, Intersectional Discrimination (OUP 2019), which won the runners-up Peter Birks Book Prize in 2020, presents an account of intersectionality theory in comparative discrimination law. Shreya is the Editor of the Human Rights Law Review published by OUP. Previously, Shreya was based at the University of Bristol Law School and has been a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence, and a Hauser Postdoctoral Global Fellow at the NYU School of Law, New York. She completed BCL with distinction and DPhil in Law on the Rhodes Scholarship from Magdalen College, University of Oxford. She is currently an associate member of the Oxford Human Rights Hub and an Official Fellow of Kellogg College.

Sandra Fredman is Professor of the Laws of the British Commonwealth and the USA at the University of Oxford, and a professorial fellow at Pembroke College. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2005 and became a QC (honoris causa) in 2012. She has written and published widely on anti-discrimination law, human rights law, and labour law, including numerous peer-reviewed articles. She was awarded a three-year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship in 2004 to further her research into socio-economic rights and substantive equality. She is South African and holds degrees from the University of Witwatersrand and the University of Oxford. She has acted as an expert adviser on equality law and labour legislation in the EU, Northern Ireland, the UK, India, South Africa, Canada, Malaysia, and the UN; and is a barrister practising at Old Square Chambers. She founded the Oxford Human Rights Hub in 2012, of which she is the Director.

Foreword, David B. Oppenheimer
1. Introduction - Exponential Inequalities: What Can Equality Law Do?, Shreya Atrey and Sandra Fredman
I. UNDERSTANDING EXPONENTIAL INEQUALITIES
2. Protecting Workers' Equal Rights During Crisis and Recovery: Constitutional Approaches in 193 Countries, Aleta Sprague, Amy Raub, and Jody Heymann
3. Addressing Intersecting Inequalities Through Alternative Economic Strategies, Diane Elson and Marion Sharples
4. Social Security, Exponential Inequalities, and COVID-19: How Welfare Reform in the UK Left Larger Families Exposed to the Scarring Effects of the Pandemic, Aaron Reeves, Kate Andersen, Mary Reader, and Rosalie Warnock
5. The Proportionality of an Economic Crisis, Meghan Campbell
6. Intersecting Crises and Exponential Inequalities: The View from Hong Kong, Kelley Loper
II. ADDRESSING EXPONENTIAL INEQUALITIES
Section A: Comparative and International Law
7. New Directions Needed: Exponential Inequalities and the Limits of Equality Law, Colm O'Cinneide
8. More than an Afterthought? Equality Law in Ireland During the Pandemic, Mark Bell
9. A Public Policy Approach to Inequality, Jessica A Clarke
10. Responding to Exponential Inequalities in Australia: Beyond the Limits of Equality and Discrimination Law, Beth Gaze
11. The Interaction of Laws Enabling Gender Equality with Other Legal Regimes: Limiting Progress in Times of Crisis, Helena Alviar García
12. Equal Access to Vaccines: Exposing the Limits of International Human Rights Law?, Catherine O'Regan
Section B: Vulnerable Groups
13. A Life Course Approach to Addressing Exponential Inequalities: Age, Gender, and COVID-19, Alysia Blackham
14. Disability in Times of Emergency: Exponential Inequality and the Role of Reasonable Accommodation Duties, Anna Lawson and Lisa Waddington
15. Remote Working, Working from Home and EU Sex-Discrimination Law, Jule Mulder
16. COVID-19 and Exponential Reproductive Rights-related Inequalities in Brazil, Marta Machado and Taís Penteado
17. A Life of Contradictions: Group Inequality and Socio-Economic Rights in the Indian Constitution, Aparna Chandra
18. An Equality-Sensitive Approach to Delivering Socio-Economic Rights During Crises: A Focus on Kenya, Victoria Miyandazi
19. The Role of Equality Law in Expanding Access to Social Goods and Services in South Africa: Lessons after the Pandemic, Catherine Albertyn