Legal mobilization in comparative perspective: workplace discrimination and access to domestic labor court in Sweden and Belgium

Some scholarly works on legal mobilization have highlighted the diffusion of litigious policies to address social problems in Europe, considering that a rights’ revolution was underway. While many of these studies have examined the diffusion of litigious policy at European level or in the United Kingdom, I suggest paying attention to Belgium and Sweden, two countries that have been under-examined by the socio-legal literature. Focusing on the implementation of anti- discrimination policy and norms, this paper explores the litigious activity of national equality agencies in the domestic labor court. The analysis of organizations’ litigious policy in Continental Europe invites to integrate another variable to the analysis of the structure of legal opportunities: the relationship between the State and interests groups. I suggest here that labor unions shape the access to labor courts by equality agencies in each national setting. This contribution aims to highlight equality agencies’ structure and agency within different labor contexts, current anti- discrimination policies and legal culture. It relies on open-ended interviews conducted with lawyers from equality agencies and labor unions in Belgium and Sweden. More broadly, this contribution examines the processes of policy implementation of European directive within member states.