Associative discrimination in Britain and in the European Union: a still too elastic concept?

The concept of associative discrimination, as more recently "shaped" by the European Court of Justice (Attridge Law v Coleman), is put under a attack in this contribution, for its possibly too large "perimeter" and undefined "border".The analysis goes on to assess how the "associative" discrimination, also because unlegislated so far, may affect the employee-employer relationship and the ability of businesses to create job.Finally, the contributions offers glimpses of comparative analysis between Britain and a Continental counterpart in this matter (Italy), to infer that the Italian system might have implemented the concept at stake (associative discrimination) in a too limited way, as opposed to the British approach. The concept of associative discrimination, as more recently "shaped" by the European Court of Justice (Attridge Law v Coleman), is put under a attack in this contribution, for its possibly too large "perimeter" and undefined "border".The analysis goes on to assess how the "associative" discrimination, also because unlegislated so far, may affect the employee-employer relationship and the ability of businesses to create job.Finally, the contributions offers glimpses of comparative analysis between Britain and a Continental counterpart in this matter (Italy), to infer that the Italian system might have implemented the concept at stake (associative discrimination) in a too limited way, as opposed to the British approach.