The curious case of marriage/civil partnership discrimination in Britain

Discrimination on grounds of marital status was one of the first grounds to be protected in British discrimination law (as part of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975). However, it has always been a highly restricted provision and, seldom litigated, it faced abolition during the passage of the Equality Act 2010. Although marriage/civil partnership was retained as a protected characteristic, the Equality Act 2010 did nothing to clarify or expand its function. This article considers developments that could mean that marriage/ civil partnership discrimination could have a much wider scope rather than, as some would have it, being relegated to being a quaint relic of the past.