The Development of Rights-based Social Policy in the European Union: The Example of Disability Rights

This article examines the development of non-discrimination rights in the EU, with particular reference to disability. It outlines the origins of Article 13 TEC, which extended the competence of the Community institutions to combat discrimination, and traces the history of other initiatives in the disability policy area. Programmatic and juridical methods of promoting equality are described and compared. The analysis considers both the different institutional obstacles to programmatic and juridical methods, and the different consequences for the substantive content of policy of pursuing programmatic and juridical approaches. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005.