The council operated a housing policy which required applicants for housing tbe British nationals. Mr Zesko, a Polish national, complained that this was race discrimination.
Held: The House declined to interpret ‘national origins’ in the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Race Relations Act 1968 so as to include ‘nationality’: discriminating against the non-British was allowed.
Lord Simon of Glaisdale observed: ‘ . . I think that considerable caution is needed in construing a general statutory provision by reference to its statutory exceptions. ‘Saving clauses’ are often included by way of reassurance, for avoidance of doubt or from abundance of caution.’
Lord Cross said: ‘There is no definition of national origin in the Act and one must interpret the phrase as best one can. To me it suggests a connection subsisting at the time of birth between an individual and one or more groups of people who can be described as ‘a nation’ – whether or not that constitutes a sovereign state. The connection will normally arise because the parents or one of the parents of the individual in question are or is identified by descent with the nation in question; but it may also sometimes arise because the parents have made their home among the people in question.’
Race should be understood in the popular sense rather than an anthropological or biological sense
Judges:
Lord Donovan, Viscount Dilhorne, Lord Simon of Glaisdale, Lord Cross of Chelsea, Lord Kilbrandon
Citations:
[1971] UKHL 3, [1972] AC 342, [1972] 2 WLR 71
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
See Also – Race Relations Board v Applin CA 1973
. .
See Also – Applin v Race Relations Board HL 27-Mar-1974
A couple cared for children without fee who were referred to them by a local authority. The children they cared for included coloured children. Two individuals sought to prevent the couple caring for coloured children. The question for the House of . .
Cited – Rogers, Regina v CACD 10-Nov-2005
The defendant appealed his conviction for racially aggravated abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear or to provoke violence. He was driving his motorised scooter and came across three Spanish women. In the course of an . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Housing, Discrimination
Updated: 09 July 2022; Ref: scu.248592
