New report by Christa Tobler on indirect discrimination
On 15 December 2022, the following thematic report of the European Equality Law Network was published: Christa Tobler, Indirect discrimination under Directives 2000/43 and 2000/78, for the European Commission, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union 2022.
Christa Tobler had already written a first report on this topic for the network in 2008 (Christa Tobler, Limits and potential of the concept of indirect discrimination, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities 2008). The new report takes up important developments in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The Network's website says the following about the new report:
'Indirect discrimination is one of several types or forms of discrimination listed in Directives 2000/43 and 2000/78, which are part of the EU's statutory equality or non-discrimination law. However, experience has shown that the concept of indirect discrimination is often not understood and sometimes not even accepted or acknowledged. Moreover, its application in practice presents a number of challenges. This report, written by Christa Tobler, updates an earlier report on indirect discrimination written in 2008 by presenting developments and challenges in CJEU case law as well as national legislation and case law in the Member States.'
Even before its official publication, namely on 2 December 2022, the report was presented by the author at a workshop of the so-called Legal Seminar of the aforementioned network in Brussels and put up for discussion.
Indirect discrimination is a topic that Christa Tobler has been dealing with for a long time, especially in her habilitation thesis of 2005 (Christa Tobler, Indirect Discrimination. A Case Study into the Development of the Legal Concept of Indirect Discrimination under EC Law, Habilitation thesis (University of Basel), Antwerp/Oxford: Intersentia 2005). Later, other articles were added, including on Swiss-EU bilateral law (an example: Samuel Schweizer/Christa Tobler, 'Das Verbot der indirekten Diskriminierung im bilateralen Recht - Insbesondere im Fluglärmstreit zwischen der Schweiz und Deutschland', in: Astrid Epiney/Stefan Diezig (eds), Schweizerisches Jahrbuch für Europarecht 2012/2013, Berne: Stämpfli / Zurich/Basel/Geneva: Schulthess 2013, 335-354).