A legal training, hosted by the Equinet Portuguese Member the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG) was held in Lisbon on 1-2 October 2009. This event focused on the practical use of EU anti-discrimination laws and involved a trial simulation.
The use of legal tools and solutions to counter unequal treatment in the field of access to goods, facilities and services represents an important new challenge for most lawyers dealing with equality and human rights.
The legal training, hosted by the Equinet Portuguese Member the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG), provided practical training experience of litigating cases related to discrimination in the field of access to goods and services.
During the training, the workshop sessions took the form of a trial simulation. Assuming the roles of complainant, defense lawyers and judges, participants argued their case, gained some practical experience on the issue of discrimination with regards to goods and services and understood the relevance of the proposed new directive in the context of the EU equal treatment legislation. Participants had a chance to work with the most recognized anti-discrimination legal experts and practitioners from all over Europe.
The main goals of the training were therefore to:
- Gain increased knowledge of EU equal treatment legislation
- Gain deepened knowledge of ECJ Case Law with regard to goods and services
- Exchange insight and experience how to assess the discriminatory content of a concrete case and how to build a case.
The training was aimed at legal team experts and legal practitioners from equality bodies.
Further information
- Programme EQUINET Legal Training (including a background bibliography)
- Summary report (173KB)
PowerPoint Presentations:
- Professor Sebastien Van Drooghenbroeck (241KB)
- Professor Aileen Mc Colgan (160KB)
- Presentation notes – Professor Sebastien Van Drooghenbroeck (in French – 130KB)