Carers and the failure of ‘identity’

Abstract

The seminar celebrates the 55th anniversary of the founding of the carers movement; the 25th anniversary of the enactment of the first ‘carers’ recognition’ statute and 10th anniversary of the landmark European Court of Justice ruling in Coleman v. Attridge Law.

It considers the effectiveness of ‘carer recognition’ legislation, enacted in many jurisdictions over the last four decades – and questions the potential of such laws to radically address the profound disadvantage that many carers experience.

In his seminar Luke Clements suggests that identify based approaches, aimed at protecting the rights of unpaid carer and of taking them to a ‘socially just’ destination have not delivered and are unlikely to.

Speaker biography

Luke Clements is the Cerebra Professor of Law & Social Justice at the School of Law, Leeds University.

Luke was involved in the drafting of the Westminster Bill’s that became the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995 and the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004, as well as acting as the expert adviser to the Joint Parliamentary Select Committee scrutinising the Care & Support Bill 2013.

He has written widely including a comparative analysis of global carer rights laws – L Clements ‘Does your carer take sugar?’ in the Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice (2013) Volume 19 pp 397 -434.

A brief biographical note is at https://essl.leeds.ac.uk/law/staff/184/professor-luke-clements

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