Can contemporary liberalism justify antidiscrimination law? The question seems impertinent until we consider contemporary liberalism’s commitment to limited government. Once we do, we realize that contemporary liberals may not complacently assume that their theories justify antidiscrimination law simply because discrimination based on race or sex is so obviously wrongful. Rather, they must scrutinize antidiscrimination law just as they do other regulation of individual conduct. Providing such scrutiny, this thesis argues that three of the most prominent contemporary liberal doctrines of political legitimacy—John Rawls’s “political liberalism,” an antiperfectionist version of the “harm principle,” and Joseph Raz’s “liberal perfectionism”—all fail to justify core applications of antidiscrimination law, applications that we intuitively consider perfectly legitimate. In light of this failure, contemporary liberalism faces a dilemma: it must jettison either its commitment to comprehensive, uniform antidiscrimination regimes or its antiperfectionism and overriding commitment to personal autonomy. This thesis argues for the latter course by providing an account of the wrongfulness of discrimination based on race or sex that condemns all instances of the conduct. According to this account, discrimination is wrong because acting on discriminatory intentions is wrong. More specifically, by taking another person’s race or sex as a reason to treat her less favorably than one would treat people of other races or the other sex, one fails to respect her as a person, to regard her as a being of ultimate value. Unlike contemporary liberal accounts, this account is fully perfectionist, since it defines discrimination in terms of the intentions of discriminators, and the intentions of discriminators in terms of their attitudes, which partly constitute their moral characters. So long as we remain committed to antidiscrimination law in its current form, we must attend to discriminators’ characters. And to attend to discriminators’ characters, we must be willing to espouse perfectionism.

La lutte contre les discriminations dans le travail en France. Sociogenèse d'un dispositif d'action publique (1980-2004) « Lutter contre les discriminations » résonne aujourd'hui en France comme un mot d'ordre naturel accompagné d'un dispositif d'actions et d'un réseau d'acteurs. Mais ceci n'est que très récent. Ce n'est qu'à la fin des années 1990 que la question des discriminations entre dans l'arène publique et qu'elle est perçue comme un problème crucial à traiter. L'ambition de cette recherche doctorale est de mieux comprendre le dispositif d'action publique français de lutte contre les discriminations dans le travail, à travers l'étude de sa genèse et de ses usages. Dans cette perspective, la loi relative à la lutte contre les discriminations du 16 novembre 2001 est essentielle, venant symboliser l'émergence et la formation de cette action publique et déterminer sa mise en œuvre. C'est au travers et à partir de son étude que l'analyse de la conception, de l'institutionnalisation et de l'application de ce dispositif a été conduite. Ce travail doctoral permet de saisir le processus d'émergence de la lutte contre les discriminations en France et sa formation en catégorie d'action publique. Il propose également une étude des pratiques d'acteurs ayant contribué à la cristallisation de cette cause dans l'espace public. Il s'intéresse aussi aux usages de cette politique au travers et à partir du cas d'une entreprise publique, la SNCF ; l'objectif étant de saisir le processus de transposition de l'action publique de lutte contre les discriminations en objectif entrepreneurial. / The fight against discriminations in the workplace in France. Sociological genesis of a public policy device (1980-2004) "Fighting against discriminations" sounds today in France like a natural motto and mobilizes a set of public devices and a network of social actors. The issue of discriminations was only introduced in the public area in the late 1990s and seems to be a crucial problem that has to be cured. The aim of this PhD research is to better understand the system of French antidiscrimination public policy in the work area through the study of its genesis and its uses. From this perspective, the law of fight against discriminations of November 16th, 2001 is an essential point : this legal framework symbolizes the emergence and formation of this public policy and determines its implementation. The analysis of the conception, the institutionalization, and the implementation of this device is guided by its study. This PhD thesis aims at analyzing the emergence of the fight against discriminations in France, and its building process as a category of public action. It proposes a study of the practices of actors who have contributed to the crystallisation of this cause in the public space. This study is also focused on the uses of this public action device and is based upon the case study of a French public company, the SNCF (National Railways Company). The objective is to highlight the process of transposition of the antidiscrimination public policy into an entrepreneurial goal.

The aim of my thesis is to discover how prevalent the sexual harassment by teachers at Czech secondary schools is and how students perceive such described problematic behaviour. In the theoretical section, I describe the history of origin of the term sexual harassment abroad as well as in the Czech Republic. Further, I present its definitions and Czech legislation of this phenomenon. Consequently, the readers will learn about theories of sexual harassment in the academic setting and about findings of some foreign and Czech researches recently held on this topic. Finally, the last chapter of the theoretical part is devoted to specific setting of secondary schools with emphasis on the main functions of educational institutions. I also point out consequences of adolescent students' sexual harassment. The empirical part then describes a chosen method - quantitative survey research - and its practical use. After that, the findings are presented and analyzed. Besides the overall occurrence of sexual harassment at Czech secondary schools I also focus on the comparison of this phenomenon perception between boys and girls and also among different types of Czech secondary schools.

Diploma thesis "The Public Defender of Rights as a Gender Equality Body" explores the jurisdiction of the ombudsman in the area of equal treatment and prohibition of discrimination (so-called Equality Body). The main focus of the work is the equality of men and women. The methodology used is theoretical-analytical legal analysis. The work starts with a theoretical analysis of basic terms and concepts relating to equal treatment and prohibition of discrimination. The institution and activities of the ombudsman are also defined in theory. This is followed by a legal analysis of three types. The first one is a procedural analysis of anti-discrimination laws (method of their enactment, past, present and proposed laws). This is followed by an institutional analysis of the Czech Equality Body and the impact of the ombudsman in the area of equal rights. The analytical research is concluded with a substantive legal analysis of selected cases decided by the ombudsman. Methods of feminist legal analysis have been predominantly used for the purposes of the analytical research. A wide area of the subject matter has been explored by use of this examination, which has produced a number of conclusions as well as a complete overview of the activities of the Equality Body in the Czech Republic. Possible changes,...

This thesis deals with the current issue of discrimination in the workplace, especially focuses on discrimination based on age and sex, sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace, legislation that regulates the area of discrimination in labor relations. The theoretical section includes explanations of terms and connections to a given focus and the practical part includes a probe into five large companies examining whether the effects mentioned in the theoretical part actually occur in practice, or how these problems are solved. This probe was in the form of semi-structured interview respondents in their workplaces. The results confirmed the claim that one of the most vulnerable group are women. Larger companies are trying to provide them a variety of advantages as for example flexible-time work, etc. Some companies have confirmed that there were some cases of bullying or sexual harassment in their firm, but these situations have not been solved other than by the dismissal of one of the participants. However, the occurrence of age discrimination was in the surveyed companies not confirmed - despite the theoretical claims and personal experience. It also showed that the respondents, HR professionals from large companies, have a poor conception of the possible solutions of those situations and...

在我國抑或是世界其他的國家，肥胖的問題日趨嚴重，根據世界衛生組織（World Health Organization， WHO）的研究，2008年全球約有15億以上的超重成年人，其中有2億的男性和將近3億的女性體重已經達到所謂的「肥胖」，另外2010年全世界約有4300萬5歲以下的兒童超重 。綜上所述，肥胖的問題正影響著每一個社會。 肥胖者在日常生活中的食衣住行可能會受到一定的歧視與不便，由於可以討論的範圍過廣，本文僅聚焦在「就業上的肥胖歧視」。為了探討此問題，本文第二章說明何謂就業歧視，闡述肥胖者在就業上可能會面臨的歧視有哪些、主流群體對於肥胖的態度與刻板印象，最後論證國家就業上肥胖歧視的正當性與必要性。 第三章介紹美國法就業上肥胖歧視之解決途徑。在美國關於肥胖者於就業上受到的歧視，可能有三種法律救濟途徑。第一、可以尋找聯邦或是州法律有沒有在保護基於「身心障礙」之就業歧視；第二、他可以思考目前所面臨的「肥胖歧視」，得否繫於其他法律保護的歧視類型，例如：種族或是性別；第三、他可以尋找他所居住的州或是城市是否有針對肥胖歧視的直接立法？本文就美國聯邦與各州禁止身心障礙歧視的相關立法做初步的分析，並且帶出相關之判決；另本文亦分析某些州或城市直接禁止「肥胖歧視」之反歧視法與相關案例分析。 第四章則回到我國，分析我國目前法制關於就業上肥胖歧視之議題該如何處理，主要區分私人企業與國家兩種途徑，私人企業上，我們將著重在《就業服務法》第5條之規範，提出本文對於此條文用以解決肥胖歧視之利與弊；國家方面則從我國公務人員考試涉及BMI值判斷的合憲性。 最後第五章結論的部分，綜合分析美國法制與我國法制之間的異與同，最後提出個人對於此議題之建議，以期達到消弭就業上肥胖歧視之長遠目標。 / Obesity discrimination is a serious problem affecting millions of workers. Fat people, and fat women in particular, experience job-related discrimination in hiring, wages, and the terms and conditions of their employment. Hence, this research focus on the problem of obesity discrimination in employment. Part II defines "what is obesity?",and describes mainstream attitudes towards fatness, considers the empirical and anecdotal evidence demonstrating that fat people experience employment discrimination because of their obesity. Then discusses medical information about weight and health as well as weight loss in order to debunk the myth that being fat is always unhealthy and that weight loss is a viable or desirable outcome, this part concludes that being fat is immutable and deserve legal protection. Part III introduces American legal remedies. In America have three legal avenues to explore. First, someone could pursue an action under federal and state laws that protect people from employment discrimination based on disability or perceived disability. Second, someone could consider whether the weight discrimination he (or she) experienced was tied to him(or her) sex, race, or some other protected class. Finally, someone could determine whether any state or local law where he (or she) lived specifically prohibited weight discrimination in employment , since a few jurisdictions have included weight as protected category in their antidiscrimination laws. This part will discuss federal and state disability antidiscrimination laws and cases, and reviews antidiscrimination law passed by three earlier jurisdictions that specifically include weight as a protected category. Part IV discusses how to solve obesity discrimination in employment? This part separate privately owned businesses and national measure. In privately owned businesses, this part will focus on Employment Service Act Article 5 and analyze how to use Employment Service Act solve obesity discrimination in employment. On the side, this part will discuss on some national examinations have qualification restricted are constitutionally.