Deliberative Freedoms and the Asymmetric Features of Anti-Discrimination Law

Abstract

In a series of papers, Sophia Moreau has offered an original and important account of the value underlying anti-discrimination law, which we call 'the deliberative freedoms account.' According to this account, anti-discrimination law exists to protect people's 'deliberative freedoms' - that is, their freedom to make decisions about how to live their lives without having to take into account, as a cost, characteristics such as their gender, race, and age. Viewing anti-discrimination law in this way, Moreau suggests, helps explain why the law treats a discriminatory act as a personal wrong against the complainant. It also reveals an underlying unity between different areas of anti-discriminati..