SUBORDISCRIMINATION AND INTERSECTIONAL DISCRIMINATION: ELEMENTS FOR A THEORY OF ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW

Abstract

This  work  is part of a revision in progress revisiting  of modern Antidiscrimination Law  that  the  authors  have  been  carrying  out  over  the  last  f ifteen  years.  The  first  part examines  texts by a US political  philosopher  and two legal scholars  (I. M. Young,  C. A. MacKinnon and K. Crenshaw), that have inspired a proposed concept of discrimination and an understanding of intersectionality  based on the acknowledgement  of systems of oppres- sion. The second part focuses on the analysis of the concept of multiple or intersectional discrimination  proposed by the Spanish legal doctrine starting from the legal case of “La Nena”, a woman married by the Gipsy ritual that was denied her widow’s benef its. From the above,  the paper concludes  with a series of proposals,  among  which those related  to the need to avoid that the intersectionality  discourse disaggregates  group political identity into individuality,  reinforces  the sex-gender  system,  or strengthens  an excessively  judge-based Antidiscrimination  Law.