Event

Thick or Thin? Exploring the Multi-Fold Manifestations of the Anti-Stereotyping Principle in North-American Anti-Discrimination Law

Tuesday, June 13, 2017 12:30to13:30
Chancellor Day Hall NCDH 202, 3644 rue Peel, Montreal, QC, H3A 1W9, CA

Each summer, the Paul-André Crépeau Centre for Private and Comparative Law organizes a series of seminars to promote research of students from McGill and elsewhere. For this presentation, we welcome Léa Godbout-Brière (LL.M., Yale University).

Abstract

The wrong modern North-American anti-discrimination legislation seeks to curtail is not straightforwardly unique; rather, it is multi-fold. So much so, that its many objectives—while they no doubt often collide—frequently also contradict each other, leaving scholars and judges alike in under-theorized, conflicted territories. The present conference is an attempt to contribute to the growing body of work theorizing one of the most complex contemporary legal questions: why is discrimination wrong, exactly?

This conference will proceed in two parts. The first will consist of a brief presentation of the broad landscape shaped by Prof. Reva Siegel, Prof. Sophia Moreau, and others, which is composed of four distinct philosophies of anti-discrimination: anti-classification, anti-balkanization, anti-stereotyping, and anti-subordination. Their presence and polymorph appearance in both American and Canadian constitutional law will be discussed. The focus will then be placed on anti-stereotyping, for it is the most malleable of the four philosophies. Just as it gains constant ground in North America, its exact content somewhat eludes us. What, then, is the exact wrong that anti-stereotyping is determined to curtail?

I hope to demonstrate that, much like the broader landscape of anti-discrimination law in which it inserts itself, anti-stereotyping is aimed at plural wrongs—rather than at any one singular wrong. The result is a tentative typology, drawn from American and Canadian scholarly work, in which anti-stereotyping is attentive to four different wrongs; a model I will discuss in detail.

About the speaker

Me Léa Brière-Godbout has been a member of the Quebec Bar since 2014. After completing her LL.B. studies at Université du Québec à Montréal, Me Brière-Godbout acted as law clerk for the Court of Appeal of Québec. She recently obtained her LL.M. from Yale Law School, where she conducted research under the supervision of Prof. Cary Franklin. She specializes in criminal law and anti-discrimination theory and will be pursuing her S.J.D. studies at the University of Toronto in the fall, before clerking for the Supreme Court of Canada in 2018.

Please note that the presentation will be in French.

Attendance is open to all and registration is not required. Snacks will be provided. For more information, centre [dot] crepeau [at] mcgill [dot] ca (please email the Crépeau Centre).

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