Unequal : how America's courts undermine discrimination law / Sandra F. Sperino and Suja A. Thomas.
2017
KF4755 .S965 2017 (Mapit)
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Author
Title
Unequal : how America's courts undermine discrimination law / Sandra F. Sperino and Suja A. Thomas.
Added Author
Imprint
New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2017]
Description
xii, 219 pages ; 25 cm.
Series
Law and current events masters.
Formatted Contents Note
Introduction
The ways judges dismiss cases
How discrimination disappears
Down the rabbit hole - Causation - Frameworks - Politics
Fakers and floodgates
Why workers lose
The future of discrimination law.
The ways judges dismiss cases
How discrimination disappears
Down the rabbit hole - Causation - Frameworks - Politics
Fakers and floodgates
Why workers lose
The future of discrimination law.
Summary
"It is no secret that since the 1980s, American workers have lost power vis-à-vis employers through the well-chronicled steep decline in private sector unionization. American workers have also lost power in other ways. Those alleging employment discrimination have fared increasingly poorly in the courts. In recent years, judges have dismissed scores of cases in which workers presented evidence that supervisors referred to them using racial or gender slurs. In one federal district court, judges dismissed more than 80 percent of the race discrimination cases filed over a year. And when juries return verdicts in favor of employees, judges often second guess those verdicts, finding ways to nullify the jury's verdict and rule in favor of the employer. Most Americans assume that that an employee alleging workplace discrimination faces the same legal system as other litigants. After all, we do not usually think that legal rules vary depending upon the type of claim brought. The employment law scholars Sandra A. Sperino and Suja A. Thomas show in Unequal that our assumptions are wrong. Over the course of the last half century, employment discrimination claims have come to operate in a fundamentally different legal system than other claims. It is in many respects a parallel universe, one in which the legal system systematically favors employers over employees. A host of procedural, evidentiary, and substantive mechanisms serve as barriers for employees, making it extremely difficult for them to access the courts. Moreover, these mechanisms make it fairly easy for judges to dismiss a case prior to trial. Americans are unaware of how the system operates partly because they think that race and gender discrimination are in the process of fading away. But such discrimination still happens in the workplace, and workers now have little recourse to fight it legally. By tracing the modern history of employment discrimination, Sperino and Thomas provide an authoritative account of how our legal system evolved into an institution that is inherently biased against workers making rights claims." -- Publisher's website.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Location
STA
Call Number
KF4755 .S965 2017
Language
English
ISBN
9780190278380 hardcover ; alkaline paper
0190278382 hardcover ; alkaline paper
9780190278403 electronic publication
0190278404 electronic publication
9780190682279 electronic book course content
0190682272 electronic book course content
0190278382 hardcover ; alkaline paper
9780190278403 electronic publication
0190278404 electronic publication
9780190682279 electronic book course content
0190682272 electronic book course content
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