BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    A rights revolution in Europe? regulatory and judicial approaches to nondiscrimination in insurance

    Mabbett, Deborah (2011) A rights revolution in Europe? regulatory and judicial approaches to nondiscrimination in insurance. Discussion Paper. London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

    [img]
    Preview
    Text
    LEQSPaper38.pdf - Published Version of Record

    Download (788kB) | Preview

    Abstract

    In a recent decision, the European Court of Justice has ruled that insurers cannot discriminate on grounds of sex in setting premiums or determining benefits. This paper discusses the background to this decision. It asks whether we are seeing a US-style ‘rights revolution’, fuelled by judicial activism, as suggested by Dobbin et al’s hypothesis of ‘the strength of weak states’ or Kagan and Kelemen’s account of ‘adversarial legalism’. It is shown that neither of these theories captures the distinctive nature of the ECJ’s intervention. An industry-friendly policy was pursued in regulatory venues, but this was overridden by the ECJ’s interpretation of the fundamental right of equal treatment. However, it is also shown that the judicial defence of fundamental rights is a weak basis for social policy, and does not foreshadow a revolution in the development of social rights in Europe.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Monograph (Discussion Paper)
    Additional Information: LEQS Paper No. 38/2011
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): adversarial legalism, discrimination, gender directive, insurance, weak state
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
    Depositing User: Sarah Hall
    Date Deposited: 04 Nov 2013 11:15
    Last Modified: 30 Jun 2024 23:41
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/8668

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    315Downloads
    6 month trend
    314Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item
    Edit/View Item