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Ordinary Citizens’ Experience of
Law as a Process:
The Case of Employment Discrimination in Belgium
Aude Lejeune
Postdoc, University of Liege & Massachusetts Institute of Technology, aude.lejeune@ulg.ac.be
Jean-François Orianne
Associate Professor, University of Liege, jforianne@ulg.ac.be
Law & Society Meeting, June 2011, San Francisco
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Stephanie’s story
• Dismissal when pregnant
• Union lawyer -> Protection of workers
“the lawyer told me that what my employer did was not fair. He convinced
me that I was not in the wrong for my action and I should litigate”
• Equality agency lawyer -> Anti-discrimination of
women at work
“the lawyer made me realize that my case could benefit other women. It
was discrimination. My misfortune can have positive consequences; the
situation can change at a broader level”.
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Stephanie’s story
“Fighting discrimination is a very long and hard process. I don’t know when
my litigation will end. And at the end, I don’t know if I get much
compensation. But the Institute for Equality between men and women helped
me. I cannot give up now”.
Diverse understandings of her personal
experience of injustice at work
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Two hypothesis
• Hypothesis One:
Several interpretations of the law by different
lawyers
• Hypothesis Two:
Relationship between how the law is interpreted
and how the workers perceive their own case
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Outline
1. Theoretical frame
2. Labor, Employment, and Discrimination in
Belgium
3. Data collection and analysis
4. Translating workers’ complaints into legal
language
5. Workers’ experience of law as a process
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1. Theoretical frame
• Legal Consciousness Studies
• Sociology of Mediations
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1. Theoretical frame
Legal Consciousness Studies
(Ewick & Silbey, 1998; Merry, 1990)
• Historical shift in socio-legal research
• The place of law in everyday life
• Current debate on legal consciousness issues
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1. Theoretical frame
Sociology of Mediations
(Callon, 1996; Latour, 2005, Sturm, 2001)
• Mediators = legal professionals active in a range
of transactions as intermediaries
• Focus less on facts than on processes through
which facts are built
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2. Belgium
Main union organizations in Belgium
Union rate in Belgium is high: 52%
In the US: 12%
In France: 8%
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2. Belgium
• 1970s: inequality between men and women at
work
• 1980s: includes racism and xenophobia
• 2000: European directives implementing equal
treatment
• 2003: First Belgian Law against discrimination
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2. Belgium
Equality Agencies
Created in early 2000s to deal with antidiscrimination issues
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3. Data collection
• Open-ended interviews with
o
o
o
o
o
Private Lawyers
Union Lawyers
Equality Agency Lawyers
Judges
Litigants
• Observations
• Supporting archival work in litigants’ records
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4. Translating workers’ complaints
Two models
• Workers’ protection
• Workers’ non-discrimination
Two main characteristics
• Legal qualification
• Role of jurisprudence and mobilization of courts
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4. Translating workers’ complaints
• Legal qualification
Workers’ protection
Workers’ non-discrimination
Protection legislation
Non-discrimination legislation
Defined by collective bargaining
between labor-related organizations
and actors
Produced by international actors,
outside the labor field
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4. Translating workers’ complaints
• Legal qualification
Workers’ protection
Workers’ non-discrimination
“I have never used anti-discrimination law.
When a woman is dismissed because she is
pregnant, why should I use antidiscrimination law while we have a whole
bunch of laws in Belgium to protect
pregnant women against dismissal? What
is the gain for the victim? Nothing!”
“When a young woman who has just
announced her pregnancy to her employer
is fired, what can we do? We have two
options. First option: we defend this woman
according to the law which protects
pregnant women from dismissal. Second
option: we consider that, beyond that
particular case and story, this case reveals
an accurate and social issue which is the
inclusion of women between 25 and 40 in
the labor market”.
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4. Translating workers’ complaints
• Strategic mobilization of courts
Workers’ protection
Workers’ non-discrimination
Application of the law
Strategic mobilization of courts and
production of jurisprudence
One particular case
One particular case which reveals
collective stakes
Protection of individuals
Vindication of collective rights
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5. Workers’ experience of the law
Two main questions:
• How do workers think about the law?
• How do their representations do or do not fit
with their lawyers’ interpretation?
Plaintiffs’ interpretations of the law are not
consistent over time
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5. Workers’ experience of the law
Three conditions for mobilizing the lawyers:
• Injustice
• Victim
• Intentional behavior
Individual litigation
Law is a distinctive and autonomous entity
affecting daily life. “Before the law” (Ewick & Silbey, 1998)
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5. Workers’ experience of the law
Two additional conditions for viewing the law as a
collective resource:
• Particular case as representative
• Belonging to one particular group
Negative aspects:
• Deprived of their own story
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Conclusion
• Workers’ legal consciousness is a process
• International regulations have penetrated local
social arenas
• Mediators encourage workers to conceive their
discrimination as relevant for broader action
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Thank you!