Equality law after 'Brexit'-stunted or reverse 'repatriation'?

This paper analyses the impact of ‘Brexit’ on UK and EU equality law from the perspective on whether there is “repatriation” of the field to the UK. We argue that this is an area where repatriation is not clear-cut: EU equality law was influenced by British legislation initiated before the UK joined the EU, and continued to be influenced by well developed litigation strategies of British and Northern Irish equality commissions and civil society organisations. Accordingly, there is the danger of reverse repatriation in that the EU may rescale the commitment to anti-discrimination law. In practice, we observe some “perverse” repatriation: the UK has some obligations to maintain the standards of EU equality law in Northern Ireland, while British equality law is only protected to a very limited degree under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Sadly, the decisive feature of EU anti-discrimination law is maintained neither in Northern Ireland nor in Great Britain. Citizens have lost directly effective EU equality rights, whose enforcement they can initiate with a good chance to involve the Court of Justice of the European Union. They have also lost the EU Commission oversight over the UK’s activities via infringement procedures before that very same court.