Customer Reviews

Antidiscrimination Law and Social Equality

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Koppelman provides a useful discussion of the law of antidiscrimination, but he provides something more to both the lawyer and nonlawyer reader. His analyses of various social justice theories and the philosophies and concepts surrounding the politics and law of antidiscrimination law challenge the reader to re-examine the limits and potential of antidiscrimination law. He also explores in new and provocative ways affirmative action, as well as First Amendment free speech concepts as applied to women's issues and hate speech. This is an enormously important work for both the serious student and critic of social justice.

A readable and closely argued guide to thinking about the means and ends of laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of particular group characteristics such as race, gender, or sexuality. This book is a needed weapon against the angry-white-male demagogues who love to exploit the public's lack of understanding about why such laws exist, how they work, and why they're needed. Incidentally, one of Koppelman's important contributions as a scholar is his persuasive exposition of why discrimination against lesbians and gay men should be viewed under the law as a form of *gender* discrimination, in that it reinforces a hierarchy of gender-related roles and taboos -- the same hierarchy that laws protecting the rights of women were intended to demolish.