Making Sense of Equality Law: A Review of the Hepple Report
In mid-2000, the Centre for Public Law and the Judge Institute of Management Studies at the University of Cambridge published the results and recommendations of the independent review of the enforcement of antidiscrimination laws in the United Kingdom (UK) undertaken by the Centre and Institute under the leadership of Professor Bob Hepple and with the financial support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Nuffield Foundation. The resulting report, entitled Equality: A New Framework,1 is a comprehensive study of the inadequacies of the current patchwork of anti-discrimination laws in the UK. Relying on targeted case studies, a broad consultation process and interviews with stakeholders, as well as legal research,2 the Hepple Report makes 53 recommendations which together provide policy-makers with a practical blueprint for a new legislative framework to ensure the full promotion of equality, securing the UK's compliance with European Union (EU) and international human rights law. This note will review the key findings and recommendations of the Hepple Report, making reference to comparative developments in Canada where at least four wide-ranging equality law reviews have taken place in the last decade.3 A fifth review concerning the Canadian Human Rights Act,4 the main anti-discrimination measure enacted by the federal government,5 took place while the Cambridge-based review was under way and