CURRENT LEGAL PROBLEMS LECTURE SERIES 2011-12: 

Charities and the Modern Equality Framework: Heading for a Collision?

by
Dr Debra Morris
University of Liverpool
 

Chaired by Alison McKenna, Principal Judge, First-tier Tribunal

on 1 December 2011, from 6-7pm

Venue:
UCL Law Faculty
Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens
London WC1H 0EG

Accredited with 1 CPD hour by the
Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board (Pending)

About this lecture:
This lecture will examine the intersection of modern equality law and charity law. The renewed focus on equality law as a result of the enactment of the Equality Act 2010 means that charities will be examined more closely than ever before. It will be seen that, in some areas, their modus operandi may lead to conflict, either with anti-discrimination law itself, or at least, with its underlying principles of equality. This is all the more worrying, considered alongside charities’ (now enhanced) requirement to provide public benefit. This is an important, yet little understood area of law for charities and their trustees. As the state retracts in the Big Society and charities fill the gap in the provision of services, it is vital that they understand the impact of equality law. The primary focus of the lecture will be on the potential for conflict between equality law’s foundational anti-discrimination objectives and the objects of some charities. This occurs where the charities’ beneficiaries are limited to one or more classes of persons, based on personal characteristics, such as gender, age or religion, so that others, that have protection under the Equality Act 2010, are denied access to their benefits. The recent Catholic Care case should provide a warning to many other charities that may well be on a collision course, in which their public benefit credentials are found wanting when tested against the modern equality framework within which they must operate.
 

About the speaker: 
Debra Morris is Reader in Charity Law & Policy at the University of Liverpool, UK, where she is also the Director of the Charity Law & Policy Unit. As Director of the Charity Law & Policy Unit, she leads research on various projects concerned with aspects of charity law. Current projects include the intersection of charities and discrimination law and the charitable status of schools. She has authored Schools: An Education in Charity Law, published by Dartmouth Press in 1996, and has been assistant editor of a leading text on charity law, Tudor on Charities, published by Sweet & Maxwell. She also assisted with the writing of the 4th edition of Picarda’s The Law and Practice Relating to Charities, published in 2010 by Bloomsbury Professional. She is Editor of Charity Law & Practice Review, the only UK journal specialising in charity law. She is a member of the International Advisory Board for the Non Profit Model Law project, based at the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies. She has written many articles in the area of charity law and has presented at conferences and seminars around the world..