In Poland, the 1997 Constitution, which contains general equality and antidiscrimination clauses, as well as a guarantee of equality between men and women is essential to the legal framework on gender equality. Other universal sources of law are laws, ordinances and ratified international...

Turkey is a unitary state following the system of Roman Law. It has a parliamentary system. Parliament (the Turkish Grand National Assembly) is the legislature. It enacts the laws. The Constitution is the fundamental law. Laws and regulations cannot contradict the Constitution. If there is an...

The Supreme law of the land is the Constitution of 1964 as amended. Malta is an independent republic with a parliamentary system of government. Parliament makes laws subject to respect for Malta's international obligations including membership of the European Union. The European Union Act of...

The Portuguese legal system is mainly a statutory law system, headed by the Portuguese Constitution and developed by state legislation. Where employment and industrial relations are concerned, collective agreements are also a key element of the system but they cannot go against mandatory legal...

The structure of the national legal system for guaranteeing equal treatment in Italy is mainly based on constitutional and statutory law. Statutory law can take the form of Acts of Parliament or Governmental Decrees; governmental decrees are issued following an act of delegation sent by...

Irish law consists of a written Constitution. The Government in Ireland is divided between a legislature, executive and judiciary. The national legislature (the Oireachtas) comprises the President of Ireland and two houses namely the upper chamber Seanad Eireann and the lower house Dáil...

France has a long-standing tradition of legislating in favour of gender equality in the domain of employment and professional life. The principle of equality between men and women was first recognized in 1946 in the Preamble to the French Constitution. The law of 11 February 1950 first regulated...

The Finnish legal system is based on statute law. The Government has the legislative initiative, but even legislative proposals made by MPs may be adopted. An agenda initiative has been in use since 2012. In most cases, legislation is introduced by a Government Bill, but even the new citizens'...

Spain recognizes certain legislative autonomy in their Autonomous Communities for the execution of legislation but anti-discrimination legislation is an exclusive task of the central Government. However, some Autonomous Communities have strategies or plans for the equality of women and men that...