Law and Society: An Analysis of Equality Before the Law (2019)

This report delves into the concept of equality before the law within the UK legal framework. It begins with an introduction to the principle of equality and its importance in society. The report then examines key legislation, particularly the Equality Act 2010, and other relevant acts like the Human Rights Act and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which aim to ensure equal treatment for all individuals. The core of the report presents two case studies illustrating instances where the ideal of equality is not fully realized. The first case study focuses on the experiences of black communities in the UK, specifically highlighting instances of police discrimination. The second case study analyzes the Lee v Ashers Baking Company Ltd case, where a same-sex couple was denied service, revealing the complexities of applying equality laws. The report concludes by questioning the extent to which the statement "We are all equal before the law" is reflected in practice, acknowledging the gap between legal ideals and real-world experiences, and emphasizing the ongoing challenges in achieving true equality.

Law, Society and Controversy
4/5/2019
Student’s Name

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Abstract
The report presented hereby is developed on the topic of equality before the law. The laws based
on equality have been discussed in the report and few case studies have been selected. The
objective of this report is to check the level of equity available with different groups of society in
practice. In addition to the online research, few legislation also been studied for the preparation
of this report which are duly referenced in the same.

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Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
The Equality Act 2010.....................................................................................................................2
Article 14 of the Human Rights Act................................................................................................3
Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights................................................................3
Case Study 1.................................................................................................................................4
Case Study 2.................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
All the people born the same way and hence deserve the same rights. Law is there to protect the
interest of individuals and to treat all the people equally. One of the lead motives of law is to
provide justice to all the members of the society in an equal manner. There are many laws on
different topics but all of them develop considering the principle of equality. Nevertheless, many
of the cases have reported there where people faced discrimination and injustice because of
certain factors even in the existence of the law. These cases are the proofs that the law does not
provide equal treatment to everyone always. In the presented report, the discussion will be made
on the statement namely “We are all equal before the law.” Certain laws on the matter of equality
will be discussed. In addition to this, two case studies will be presented in support of arguments.
The Equality Act 2010
As the name of act implies, the same is lead legislation of the UK, which prevent discrimination
and formed the basis of anti-discrimination law in Britain. Equality is all about the formation of a
fair society. The lead objective of the act is to prevent discrimination between two or more
people. Here discrimination refers to a situation where two people are treated in a different
manner and there is no proper reasonable ground of such difference. This act replaced nine
pieces of previous anti-discrimination legislation including the Sex Discrimination Act 1975,
Disability Discrimination Act 1995, and Race Relations act 1976. The subjective act is
applicable to all the employers, and service providers including providers of education. The act
identifies nine characteristics based on that; discrimination cannot be made between two people.
These characteristics are known as protected characteristics and mentioned as below:

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 Age
 Race
 Disability (Citizensadvice.org.uk, 2019)
 Sex
 Religion or belief
 Marriage and civil partnership
 Pregnancy and Maternity
 Gender reassignment (Equalityhumanrights.com, 2019)
It means people to whom this act is applicable cannot make the discrimination because of any
one or more than one characteristics mentioned above. This proves that law treat equally to
everyone and one cannot be discriminated because of disability, age, or any other identified
feature.
Human Rights Act
Article 14 of the Human Rights Act
Apart from the Equality Act 2010, Human Rights Act also ensures equal applicability of the law.
This act ensure the existence of protection against discrimination granted under article 14 of
European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). As per the provisions of this article, the
freedom and rights provided to individuals under the Human Rights Act and European
Convention on Human Rights should be secured without any discrimination
(Libertyhumanrights.org.uk, 2019). In other words, this is to state that individuals have the right
to use their human rights and entitlements without facing any discrimination based on sex,
religion, social origin, language or other status. Courts have provided that human right protection

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also covered indirect discrimination. It means if a law is applicable to everyone but brings certain
adverse impact on a few of them, then in such a situation individuals would have the right to
protection from such laws. In this manner, the law treats every person equally in society and does
not discriminate between two people.
Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a document, which has been adopted by the United
Nations in the year 1948. There are total of 30 articles in this document. Article 7 of the same
ensures equal applicability of the law to everyone. According to the provisions of this article,
everyone is equal in the eyes of law and therefore has the same protection under the law without
any discrimination (Streich, 2008).
All the above-mentioned are laws have developed on the subject of equality. All of these believe
that law is an element developed for the best interest of society and in this manner; all people
should be treated equally. This is the demand of law but things are not the same in practice. In
the real world many of the times, people face discrimination despite the existence of proper law.
In the following section, two of the case study will be presented where the law did not treat all
people equally.
Case Study 1
The case is related to police and black communities. In history, many of the cases been there
when police took cruel actions against the black community of the society. According to the
figures released by the home officer, in 12% of the cases, police used force against black people
in 2017-18. Further, in England and Wales, around 86% population is of white people but they
have faced less than three-quarters of armed force incidents (Dearden, 2018). Police in the UK

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always focus on black youth and held that this group creates a criminal element in society.
Brixton 1981 riot is the lead example of such discrimination, where the racial confrontation
between white British police and black British youth has been seen. Further, according to most
consistent research it has been found that in comparison to white people, minority ethnic
communities are more likely to face the incidents of search and stop. This can be proven by the
fact that during the year 2005-06, the number of the stop was 15 per 1000 people for white
people, whereas for the black people this figure was 90 per 1000 people (Bowling, Parmar &
Phillips, 2010). However, this figure shows a good position in comparison to the year 2001-02,
yet this is not a good figure and shows the discrimination between white and black people.
In addition to this, people from ethnic minorities face struggle to join police services. In the
1980s Black police officers faced discrimination and the hostile environment from their
colleagues. In addition to these issues, experiences in the job, promotion, and recruitment targets
are another area where people do not get equal treatment of the law.
Case Study 2
The case study presented here is related to Discrimination by a public servant. The case is well
known as Lee v Ashers Baking Company Ltd and others [2018] IRLR 1116 SC. In this case, the
owner of the bakery refused to prepare a cake for a same-sex couple. The cake was required to
feature a message in support of same-sex marriage. The reason for the refusal was the religion of
the bakery owner. Christian people owned the subjective bakery business and their religion was
not allowing them to arrange a cake for the same-sex couple. The person who ordered a cake for
the couple was named as Gareth Lee who was a gay rights activist. This matter subsequently
went into court where Northern Ireland County Court given the decision in the favor of Lee and
held the Ashers bakery liable to provide £500 as damages to victim party (Theconversation.com,

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2018). Court of appeal further upheld the ruling. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court reversed the
same. In its final decision, the Supreme Court held that Lee was not discriminated. Supreme
Court stated that refusal to write a message in support of same-sex marriage do not generate any
direct discrimination based on sexual orientation against anyone. This is the case, which proves
the defeat of equality law. As mentioned above, the Equality Act 2010 provides the same
treatment to everyone; this case does not seem like this.
Conclusion
In a conclusive way, this is to state that the general objective of every law is to provide fair and
equal treatment to all the members of society. In the presented report, focus been made on the
various laws that are there in the UK to ensure the equality of law. Then after two case studies
have presented where people felt discrimination based on their race and sexual orientation. In the
first case, the situation of black people in the UK has discussed that often face discrimination
while dealing with police. In the second case, the leading case of UK named Lee v Ashers Baking
Company Ltd and others been discussed. In this case, the same-sex couple faced discrimination
and the Supreme Court finally given the decision in against of them. These situations put a
question mark on the statement “We are all equal before the law.” After a decade of the Equality
Act 2010 and other Equality laws, the situation is not good enough in the UK. Article 14 of the
Human Rights Act, which provides protection against discrimination.

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References
Bowling, B., Parmar, A. & Phillips, C. (2010). Policing ethnic minority communities. [online]
Available from: http://thinkethnic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Policing%20ethnic
%20minority%20communities.pdf [Accessed on 05/04/19]
Citizensadvice.org.uk. (2019). When are you protected from discrimination? [online] Available
from: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/about-discrimination/
equality-act-2010-discrimination-and-your-rights/ [Accessed on 06/04/19]
Dearden, L. (2018) Police use force disproportionately against black people in England and
Wales, figures suggest. [online] Available from:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-racism-force-violence-black-people-uk-
white-race-mental-health-taser-restraint-firearms-a8682516.html [Accessed on 05/04/19]
Disability Discrimination Act 1995
Equality Act 2010
Equalityhumanrights.com. (2019) Your rights under the Equality Act 2010. [online] Available
from: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/your-rights-under-equality-
act-2010 [Accessed on 05/04/19]
Lee v Ashers Baking Company Ltd and others
Libertyhumanrights.org.uk. (2019) Article 14: No Discrimination. [online] Available from:
https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/human-rights/what-are-human-rights/human-rights-act/
article-14-no-discrimination [Accessed on 06/04/19]

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Race Relations act 1976
Sex Discrimination Act 1975
Streich, M., (2008) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Australia: Allen & Unwin.
Theconversation.com. (2018) Same-sex wedding cake: the Supreme Court’s Lee v. Ashers ruling
explained. [online] Available from: https://theconversation.com/same-sex-wedding-cake-the-
supreme-courts-lee-v-ashers-ruling-explained-104718 [Accessed on 06/04/19]