Hybrid Lecture – Positive Equality Duties and the Public/Private Divide in Discrimination Law

On 31st August 2026 by Mark Walters

Saturday 27 March 2027, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm GMT, online and London, UK

 

Speaker: Professor Alysia Blackham (The University of Melbourne)

The global #MeToo movement has created sustained impetus for reform of discrimination laws in the UK and Australia. In this shifting legal context, this lecture scrutinises the public/private divide that continues to shape the framing and scope of discrimination law, particularly positive equality duties. Drawing on feminist and critical legal scholarship, I argue that what is seen as ‘private’ is contested, shifting, and porous, and often serves to limit the transformative potential of discrimination law. Building on comparative examples from the UK and Australia, the lecture maps how, despite shifting understandings of the appropriate scope of regulation and law-making, the public/private divide remains embedded as a feature of discrimination law. The lecture calls for renewed scrutiny of the limits and scope of discrimination laws to help transcend the public/private dichotomy.

 

Find more information and book your free place here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/2027/mar/positive-equality-duties-and-publicprivate-divide-discrimination-law

This event will be held online and at University College London Faculty of Laws, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens, London, UK.