Indirect Discrimination

Abstract

Indirect discrimination involves an apparently neutral practice or policy which puts members of a protected group at a disproportionate disadvantage compared with members of a cognate group, and which fails to satisfy a means-end justification test. Law has played a critical role in recognizing and conceptualizing the phenomenon. The conceptual distinction between direct and indirect discrimination, and their relative moral badness remains controversial in legal and philosophical literature. Some have even questioned whether indirect discrimination even counts as ‘discrimination’, and others have asked whether it is wrongful at any rate (the two categories of interrogators do not necessarily overlap). These questions have led to renewed attempts to explore the moral badness of indirect discrimination, and the legitimacy of the legal regulation of the phenomenon.

Keywords: indirect discrimination, discrimination law