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A great deal of academic literature already exists on the topics of equality and discrimination, ranging from theoretical discussion of the concept of equality to doctrinal analysis of legal provisions in national, European and international law. This book offers an original contribution by providing an in-depth comparative perspective on European non-discrimination law. It reflects the reality that non-discrimination law in Europe is strongly interconnected. Most notably, domestic legislation and case-law on gender equality has been influenced by European Union law since the 1970s. More recently, a series of Directives since 2000 have provoked wide-ranging reforms of national legislation across various grounds of discrimination, such as ethnic origin and disability. Developments within national law can, in turn, be expected to influence future trends within EU legislation and case-law. Therefore, this book uses a comparative method in order to examine the approaches of different legal systems to key issues within non-discrimination law. In so doing, it reveals the rich variety found within domestic legal orders, but also traces evidence of the cross-border influence of EU law, as well as other European and international legal instruments.

By providing an innovative and comparative perspective on non-discrimination law, this book will be a valuable resource for several audiences. The doctrinal legal materials are analysed in a broader socio-legal context. This book should therefore be a stimulating text for both students and academics. For legal practitioners, judges, activists and policy makers, it offers insights into legislative and judicial responses to common challenges that present themselves within non-discrimination law. The book fits within the broader objectives of the Ius Commune Casebook Project, which is a joint undertaking of Maastricht University (UM) and the University of Leuven (K.U.Leuven). The project's aim is to produce a collection of casebooks, covering each of the main fields of law. The current text is the fourth such book, complementing the existing texts on tort law, contract law and unjustified enrichment. Other casebooks are also in progress on topics such as property law and consumer law. While nondiscrimination law is part of private law, it is rooted in human rights law and also applies to special fields such as employment law and administrative law. This is the first volume to take the casebook series beyond the narrow confines of private law.

A feature of the casebook series is the existence of a complementary website: www.casebooks.eu. This site provides access to many of the original language versions of those extracts translated during the compilation of the casebook. In addition, where the full text of an extract (e.g. a court decision) is publicly available, then the relevant hyperlink is available on the casebook website. Therefore, the website provides a living resource to supplement the published text and allows the reader to go further where desired.

One of the most immediate and practical barriers to an extensive comparative study of European legal systems is language. Therefore, an essential element in realising this book was financial support from the European Community Action Programme to Combat Discrimination (2001 – 2006). Amongst other things, this provided the resources to bring together a group of international experts to work on the book and permitted translation of legislation, case-law and other legal materials from across the 27 EU Member States. Our first step was to assemble a team of chapter authors and national experts.

Each chapter was written independently by one author. The precise delimitation of the chapters is explained in the introduction. To enhance a common perspective, several authors' meetings provided opportunities for team work and in depth discussion of chapters. Ultimately, there remain different approaches within the individual chapters, which reflect not only the different national background of authors based in Belgium (Prof. Olivier De Schutter), Britain (Prof. Aileen McColgan, Prof. Mark Bell, Tufyal Choudhury and Gay Moon), the Netherlands (Prof. Lisa Waddington, Prof. Janneke Gerards) and Germany (Prof. Dagmar Schiek), but also the fact that authors' individual perspectives are coloured by their specific experience relating to human rights law or EC law and to one or several specific grounds for discrimination. The editors wish to express their sincere gratitude to the other chapter authors for their generous cooperation throughout this substantial project.

The role of the national experts was to identify the key legislation and case-law from within their jurisdiction according to the themes examined in each chapter of the book. We extend warm thanks to the following persons (in alphabetical order) for their contributions as national experts. The countries in respect of which they contributed information are listed in brackets after their name and professional affiliation: Zoe Apostolopoulou, e-ISOTIS, Athens (Cyprus), Prof. Susanne Baer, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (Germany), Fotini Bayeri LL.M, Lawyer (Greece), Dr. Claire de Beausse de La Hougue, Université Paris II (France), Margarida FA Brandao Matias, College of Europe, Bruges (Portugal), Ausrine Burneikiene, Equal Opportunities Ombudsman (Lithuania), Prof. Theresia Degener, Evangelischen Fachhochschule RWL, Bochum (Germany), Zuzana Dlugosova, The Citizen and Democracy (Slovakia), Dr. Tonio Ellul, Ellul Mifsud and DeBono Advocates (Malta), Dr. Gita Feldhune, University of Latvia (Latvia), Dr. Petra Foubert, University of Leuven (K.U.Leuven) (Belgium), Dr. Marianne Gijzen, Maastricht University (Netherlands), Javier Guemes, European Disability Forum (Spain), Rachael Hession, Law Society of Ireland (Ireland), Margarita Ilieva, Attorney-at-law, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (Bulgaria), Iustina Ionescu, Centre for Legal Resources (Romania), Dovile Juodkaite, Global Initiative on Psychiatry (Lithuania), Dr. Andrés Kádár, Hungarian Helsinki Committee (Hungary), Jaroslaw Kaminski, Polish Disability Forum (Poland), Andrea Kampf, Icon Institut (Germany), Dr. Kristina Koldinska, Charles University, Prague (Czech Republic), Dr. Karin Konig, Lawyer, City of Vienna Municipality (Austria), Dr. Rok Lampe, University of Maribor (Slovenia), Paul Lappalainen, Swedish National Integration Authority (Sweden), Timo Makkonen, Law and Consultancy Firm Timo A Makkonen (Finland), Prof. Aileen McColgan, King's College London (UK), Kasper Nizam, Consultant, Socialt Udviklingscenter (Denmark), Vadim Poleshchuk MA, Legal Information Centre for Human Rights (Estonia), Shivaun Quinlivan, National University of Ireland, Galway (Ireland), Cristina Sosa Erdozain, GLE Services, Brussels (Spain), Dr. Florian Stork, Lawyer (Germany), Véronique van der Plancke, Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) (Belgium), Maria Ventegodt Liisberg, Danish Institute for Human Rights (Denmark), Dr. Malgorzata Zajac Zysk, Mittal Steel Poland SA (Poland). In addition, Prof. Alessandro Simoni (University of Florence, Italy) kindly supplied information on Italy.

From the sources compiled by national experts, a wide range of material was translated into English. These translations were made by a private company, and subject to review by the relevant national expert. Some extracts are also chapter authors' or national experts' own translations or translations that were otherwise publicly available.

Once each chapter of the book was prepared in first draft, it was submitted for review by an Independent Advisory Board. This group of leading experts in non-discrimination law provided excellent feedback and strongly contributed to the quality of the final text. We wish to thank the following persons for their generous participation in the Board's work:

A number of other persons provided research and other assistance to individual chapters, and we acknowledge the assistance of the following: Stelios Andreadakis and Pascale Lorber (University of Leicester–chapter two), Katherina Drinkuth LL.M, Franz Ebert (stud iur) and Frauke Remmers (Dipl Oec) (all University of Oldenburg–chapter three), Robin Allen QC (Cloisters Chambers, London–chapter eight).

Through the contributions of national experts and the review by the Independent Advisory Board, every effort has been taken to ensure that the law described in the book is accurate, complete and as up-to-date as possible. Nevertheless, this is a highly fluid area of law and monitoring change across 27 countries with their many differentlanguages has been a genuine challenge. New case-law at domestic and European level in the wake of the 2000 Directives is beginning to trickle out, whilst some Member States are still in the process of revising national legislation. Naturally, responsibility for any errors lies with the authors.

Part of the dynamism of non-discrimination law reflects the fact that it is relatively 'young' in many European states. This also posed a challenge in writing this book, because there are some countries where very little case-law exists so far or the core legislation has only been introduced in recent years. This context explains why there is greater reference within this book (compared to others in the Ius Commune series) to decisions of lower courts and also to those of quasi-judicial bodies which specialise in non-discrimination law.

Finally, the editors express great thanks for the financial, academic and administrative support provided across several years by Maastricht University and the Ius Commune Casebook Project. This project was first conceived by Lisa Waddington, who holds the European Disability Forum Chair in European Disability Law in the Faculty of Law at Maastricht University, who succeeded in applying for financial support from the European Commission for the broader project entitled 'Stimulating Public Interest Litigation at a Pan-European Level–Raising Knowledge and Imparting Skills', funded by the European Commission within the framework of the Community Action Programme to Combat Discrimination. Besides the casebook, the project comprised a series of summer schools on aspects of non-discrimination law, which complemented the comparative research during the writing of the casebook. Prof. Hildegard Schneider (Maastricht University) and Prof. Gerard Quinn (National University of Ireland, Galway) had the responsibility for this part of the overall project.

During this first stage of the project, when the administrative support structure and the working routine of chapter authors and national experts was established, the editors were generously supported by Dr. Marianne Gijzen. As this book falls within the ius commune series, the editors would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the General Editor of the series, Prof. Walter van Gerven, and Richard Hart of Hart Publishing, who has consistently supported the series. Special thanks go to Dimitri Droshout, the Ius Commune Casebook Project research coordinator. He played a particularly active role in steering this book towards its completion. He provided support above and beyond his normal tasks and guided us in maintaining consistency with the spirit of this series.

There were two principal assistants who played an invaluable role in furthering this book. Moritz Jesse made a leading contribution in the first stage when national experts were collecting materials and then during the translation process. In the later stages of the project, Raluca Rusu ensured that the chapters were transformed from the authors' individual styles into the specific format requirements of the series. Both assistants were constantly available for a wide variety of support tasks and their contributions were instrumental in permitting us to complete this book within the intended timeframe. Finally, there are a range of other persons who also madeimportant individual contributions at different times to the project and we happily acknowledge their support: William Bull (language review), Dr. Simon Duindam, Hein Kruijt (translation of the annex), Chantal Kuypers, Mariken Lenaerts, Marie-Anne Sarlet, Diana Schabregs, Yleen Simonis.

Dagmar Schiek, Oldenburg
Lisa Waddington, Maastricht
Mark Bell, Leicester
15 January 2007