Equality Law After 'Brexit' - Stunted or Reverse 'Repatriation'?

By the editors: Chapter 16 highlights the way EU law has shaped UK equalities legislation and Dagmar Schiek and Aislinn Fanning also recognise that repatriation of equalities competences is likely to be differentiated in the UK. They cite the different position of Northern Ireland, where equalities legislation has been a fundamental part of the success of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and suggest that this gives equalities an added dimension not necessarily apparent in the other nations of the UK. They argue that post Brexit this emphasis upon equalities in Northern Ireland will need to remain and that the EU-UK TCA will be important in ensuring this. On the broader question of whether the EU-UK TCA will protect equalities in the UK and prevent non-regression, they conclude that the jury is still out on that one. Authors' abstract: This paper analyses the impact of ‘Brexit’ on UK and EU equality law from the perspective on whether there is “repatriation” of the field to the UK. We argue that this is an area where repatriation is not clear-cut: EU equality law was influenced by British legislation initiated before the UK joined the EU, and continued to be influenced by well developed litigation strategies of British and Northern Irish equality commissions and civil society organisations. Accordingly, there is the danger of reverse repatriation in that the EU may rescale the commitment to anti-discrimination law. In practice, we observe some “perverse” repatriation: the UK has some obligations to maintain the standards of EU equality law in Northern Ireland, while British equality law is only protected to a very limited degree under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Sadly, the decisive feature of EU anti-discrimination law is maintained neither in Northern Ireland nor in Great Britain. Citizens have lost directly effective EU equality rights, whose enforcement they can initiate with a good chance to involve the Court of Justice of the European Union. They have also lost the EU Commission oversight over the UK’s activities via infringement procedures before that very same court.