UK Legal System: Equality Before Law and Discrimination Analysis

This essay critically examines the principle of 'equality before the law' within the United Kingdom's legal system. It begins by establishing the foundational importance of equality in UK law, emphasizing the idea that all individuals should be treated equally regardless of their background. The essay delves into the complexities of this principle by exploring various forms of discrimination prevalent in the UK, including those based on race, gender, age, disability, and sexual orientation. It analyzes key legislation like the Race Relations Act and the Equality Act 2010, discussing their impact and limitations in addressing societal inequalities. The essay highlights the challenges in achieving true equality, citing examples of racial discrimination and police brutality, and concludes that while the legal framework supports equality, its implementation and effectiveness are often compromised, leading to disparities in treatment across different segments of society. The paper uses various sources, including books, journals, and online resources, to support its arguments.

“We are all equal before the
law”

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Demonstrating understanding and knowledge of the subject and issues to do with legal system
of UK......................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Every individual in the society have one of the primary right of Equality and most of
constitution acknowledge this. The statement of We all are equal before the law and are entitled
without any discrimination to equal protection of the law (Gardner, 2015). Thus, everyone in the
society must be treated equally under the law regardless of gender, nationality, colour, disability,
etc. The present study aims to evaluate the statement in UK and will analyse that are all the
people treated equally in the society or not.
MAIN BODY
Demonstrating understanding and knowledge of the subject and issues to do with legal system of
UK
The statement shows that the law of UK focuses on treating all the people in the society
equally (Brayne, Carr and Goosey, 2015). In other words, the legislation of the country is not to
make any difference between poor and rich, worker or capitalist, feudal lord or peasant. All are
equal in the eye of law. For example; in the judgement of the court, it does not matter if the
convict is a male or female. Those who break the constitution have to go through the
consequences. The laws are applied for all from rich to poor. But does all the groups in the
society are treated equally in every terms? It is the big question. There are 7 types of
discrimination in the Law of UK, that are; age, gender, disability, race, sex, caste-based
discrimination and colour, disability (Dworkin, 2018).
Racism and societal discrimination
By far the history of Britain is concerned with racism that has been rooted deeply in the
black presence. Due to racism, societal discrimination become prevalent. Social in equality refers
to the group of society do not have equal social status that can be based on gender, colour,
ethnicity or any other characteristics. Racial discrimination is a part of social inequality that
involves experiences resulting from the non-legal and legal system of unfair treatment based on
skin colour, age, etc. Almost all black American experience some type of racial discrimination
(Dahrendorf, 2017).
Following are some related legislation;
Anti-discrimination Act
1

This law has some sections that facilitates the process of equality among the citizens of
UK. The moot concern of Anti discrimination law was to protect rights of people. This act is
currently functioning through three divisions of the act that mainly deals with race, sex and
disability (Chisholm, 2016). The three acts under this are; Sex Discrimination Act of 1975, the
Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 and The Race Relation Act of 1976. The racial
discrimination was developed in UK by the related law of Race Relation Act 1965. The main
reason behind introducing the Act was the angered group in the society that faced many
discrimination problems because of their race and colour (Raz, 2017).
The Race Relation Act
As revised by Act made in 2000 and 1976 of Race Relation that attempts to prohibit
inequality on colour, race, nationality or ethnicity in provision of goods and services,
employment and education. This law is applied in Scotland, England and Wales. This act is
considered unethical to discriminate the group of society on the basis of racial identity. The very
first conviction under this act came in October 1967 (Neuvonen, 2016). In this conviction a
member of National Socialist part was found guilty of doing inequality by the colour of skin and
gender and had been prosecuted under the law. Under this act people should not treated
unequally by their colour as that is the biggest issue in United Kingdom.
The Equality Act
The equality Act come into force on 1st October 2010 that covers various discrimination
laws under one (Equality Act 2010, 2019). Under this Act, in many situations such as; goods and
services, employment, facilities, education and transport, disabled people should treated equally
and should protect from this kind of discrimination. The concept of equality demands universal
treatment but the constitution provides partial treatment (Habermas, 2015). The legislation of UK
does not deal with all the aspect of discrimination that various group of society might experience
in daily life. It covers all the discrimination aspect as follows;
 Age- The law strictly mentioned that individual does not treat unfairly at workplace
because of their age. An individual should always be judged on their skills and
knowledge.
 Race- Race is refers to the colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin of any individual
and the law state that all the people have right to be treated equally (Ramsey, 2016).
2

 Sex- Housing, employment, transport and apprenticeships should be equal for men and
women and they should equally pay of their job.
 Religion and value- The act mentioned that the religion, value and belief should not be
against the group of society (Raub and et. al., 2016).
 Sexual Orientation- The people whether who are gay, bisexual, lesbian and straight
should treated fairly and equally. If they are treated unfairly because of your sexuality, it
is against the law.
But the biggest thing to consider in the lawv is that if any person is subjected to unlawful
treatment such as; harassment, discrimination or victimisation before 1st October 2010, the
Equality Act will not apply (Naffine, 2017).
Impact and limitation of the law on society
The main limitation of the law is it did not extend to Northern Ireland as well as it
exclude several private boarding houses and shops. The act only considers racial discrimination
in the public sphere to be offensive. It significantly remained constricted to peace and
conciliation used to be based upon the assurance (Gardner, 2015). The discrimination remained a
weak piece of law or an attempt that was not enough capable to end the discrimination related to
the colour in UK.
 The legislation of race discrimination is associated with giving equal opportunity that is
not consistent enough and it was also complex in nature but the modified law that is The
Equality Act is much more unified and systematic. But the all the people in the society
are not following the legislation as they do not care (Brayne, Carr and Goosey, 2015).
 The Race Relation Act cannot be challenged by the current law and it is not potent and
inadequate to fight against the inequality by the skin colour. Racial discrimination is a
sensitive issue that is related to the self- respect, sentiments and pride of an individual in
the country.
Effect of the act
The Race Relation Act had been derided by the activist. According to a survey between
implementation of this act and 31st march 2001, 309 complaints were received. From all the
complaints only 85 complaints fell under the scope of law (Dworkin, 2018). The law made
strictly illegal to refuse employment, housing and any other public service on the basis of colour
3

of the skin or ethnic background and the reason to implement in order to promote the idea of
consonant community relations.
Some real examples of in equality
Brutality of the police of UK can also seen by this example where a person who is white
American, participated in a non-violent protest (Dahrendorf, 2017). There are lot of people
including African-American people as well. The police officer killed one African-American man
named as Eric Garner and asked the white man about the situation very generously. The
partiality in the treatment and police brutality clearly deny the statement of treating all the public
in the country equally. The UK has never implemented any legislation that segregate or
discriminate on the ground of ethnicity or race. There are many cases in the country where many
black people have been convicted without any evidence. People in UK stated that all are equal
before the law but all are not treated equally.
Other than the racism, there are many areas of discrimination of the law such as poverty.
A report state that the poorest are treated unfairly in compare to rich people in UK (Chisholm,
2016). The group of society with poor people are treated unequally in many contexts that is
against the law.
CONCLUSION
From the present study it has been evaluated that the statement is widely and strongly
mentioned in the country, that all the group of society are treated equally, but it is partially true.
Many of the groups such as; people suffering with poverty, black people, etc. are facing in
equality by other people of UK and there is less effect of the related laws in the country on this
area of discrimination. It also has been concluded that, the government introduced various laws
and modify accordingly with the issues. But on the other side individuals of government such as
Police are responsible for not treating, Americans and African-American equally.
4

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Gardner, J. W., 2015. Excellence: Can we be equal and excellent too?. Pickle Partners
Publishing.
Brayne, H., Carr, H. and Goosey, D., 2015. Law for social workers. Oxford University Press,
USA.
Dworkin, R., 2018. Equality. In Political Philosophy in the Twenty-First Century (pp. 15-29).
Routledge.
Dahrendorf, R., 2017. On the origin of inequality among men. In Social Policy and Public
Policy (pp. 41-51). Routledge.
Chisholm, S., 2016. Equal rights for women. Network Journal. 23(1). p.68.
Raz, J., 2017. The rule of law and its virtue. In The Rule of Law and the Separation of
Powers (pp. 77-94). Routledge.
Neuvonen, P. J., 2016. Equal citizenship and its limits in EU law: we the burden?. Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Habermas, J., 2015. Between facts and norms: Contributions to a discourse theory of law and
democracy. John Wiley & Sons.
Ramsey, F. P., 2016. Truth and probability. In Readings in Formal Epistemology (pp. 21-45).
Springer, Cham.
Raub, A. and et. al., 2016. Protections of Equal Rights across Sexual Orientation and Gender
Identity: An Analysis of 193 National Constitutions. Yale JL & Feminism, 28, p.149.
Naffine, N., 2017. Possession: Erotic love in the law of rape. In Gender and Justice (pp. 115-
142). Routledge.
Online
Equality Act 2010. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:<https://www.gov.uk/guidance/equality-
act-2010-guidance>.
5