SHALL I COMPARE THEE? THE LEGAL DILEMMA: THE CHOICE OF COMPARATORS IN DISCRIMINATION CASES

There have been remarkable developments in some areas of discrimination law in the United Kingdom over recent years along with a notable lack of development in other areas with both relative success or failure (in terms of extending the protec-tion of the law) often being determined by the appropriate comparator which can be used in presenting a claim for discrimination and/or the influence and con-straints of rules set down in UK and European Community Legislation. It is con-tended that a lack of uniformity of approach to these issues both hinders and helps the equality cause. It hinders by presenting uncertainty about the appropriate com-parator in these cases and helps where the law recognises uniformity of approach in determining comparators across differing kinds of equality cases is both ill-advised and inappropriate. It is contended in this article that reform of the areas of law where protection is weak or badly-structured is best served by borrowing from approaches in the better protected areas of UK discrimination law or from strategies utilised in other jurisdictions. In the interests of brevity and consistency of argument and analysis it has been necessary to refrain from considering this issue as it relates to equal pay