Foundations of Employment Discrimination Law

Employment discrimination law has emerged from the clash of social, economic, and psychological forces that have shaped the history of the US and defined its central institutions, and has become an area of continuing controversy. In light of the unusual combination of moral and practical issues that bear on the nature of employment discrimination, John Donohue brings together readings from a variety of perspectives - history, philosophy, economics, law, psychology and others in this reader for law school courses. After placing the topic in historical and philosopical perspectives with selections from de Tocqueville, Gunnar Myrdal, Owen Fiss and others, he focuses on race discrimination, with readings from a wide cross-section of viewpoints, among them Richard Posner, Randall Kennedy, Claudia Goldin, and Catherine MacKinnon. The selections have been edited to facilitate accessibility. Each chapter and section has an introduction highlighting and summarizing the readings, and each section includes an extensive set of notes and questions, designed both to provide a deeper understanding of the readings, and to introduce and critique a broader set of perspectives.
This book is intended for students and scholars of labour and discrimination law.