Rights On Trial
How Workplace Discrimination Law Perpetuates Inequality
Ellen Berrey, Robert L. Nelson, and Laura Beth Nielsen
Overview
This book studies how employment discrimination law works in practice, drawing on roughly 1,800 federal discrimination cases filed between 1988 and 2003 together with about one hundred interviews with plaintiffs, defendants, and attorneys. Nelson and his co-authors find that the adversarial structure of litigation imposes heavy personal and financial costs on those who bring claims, and that the system rarely delivers what its principles promise. They argue that, in operation, workplace discrimination law often reinforces the very hierarchies it was meant to dismantle. The book extends Nelson's long-running research on discrimination law and institutional inequality.
Honorable Mention, Best Book Prize 2017–18, Sociology of Law Section, American Sociological Association.
Citation
Ellen Berrey, Robert L. Nelson, and Laura Beth Nielsen. Rights on Trial: How Workplace Discrimination Law Perpetuates Inequality. University of Chicago Press, 2017.