Direct and Indirect Discrimination

1 The right against discrimination is a staple feature of most contemporary constitutional democracies. It flows from the more abstract right to equality. In particular, it stipulates that unequal or disadvantageous treatment against certain social groups, or on certain grounds, is normatively significant and stands in need of particular justification. Discriminatory acts, practices, and policies, then, are those that ‘wrongfully impose a relative disadvantage or deprivation on persons based on their membership in some salient social group … [where] the...