EU equality legislation may be understood as constituting the first attempt at developing a specific fundamental right policy at EU level in the absence of a general fundamental right competence. While much attention has been devoted to the substantive equal treatment rights thereby created, the legal mechanisms through which domestic actors have been empowered – or have failed to be empowered – to go to court in order to enforce the said rights have not been explored. The EU equality directives have sought, although to a modest extent, to facilitate litigation by supporting the involvement of a broad range of actors next to individual victims. This paper will seek to assess the impact that these procedural aspects of EU equality legislation may have had on the actual litigation of EU equality rights. For this purpose, the author will chase the procedural history of selected cases brought before the CJEU and examine whether or not litigation in these cases would have been possible in the absence of the relevant EU rules designed to facilitate access to court.
