Martha A. Finemanand legal equality: Vulnerability vs. Subordiscrimination?

Abstract

This article analyzes (and argues) the American legal scholar Martha A. Fineman's thesis about vulnerability. It is divided into five sections in which Fineman's paradigm is successively contextualized, projected to the ECtHR cases on vulnerability and compared with other critical contributions to Antidiscrimination Law. It ends with a brief conclusion that, while recognizing the validity of the diagnosis and the laudable purpose that moves Fineman's theory, it is critical about taking it as inspiration for a new and necessary concept of legal equality.