주요국 장애차별금지법의 비교법적 연구 - 장애의 정의를 중심으로 -

A comparative study on disabilityanti-discrimination laws- focusing on the definition of disability -Park, Min-YoungFor a number of years disability activists and advocates have argued for a re -evaluation of the concept of disability and the thinking behind disability policy. Social perspective of disability has changed assumptions about the concept of disability, and particularly about the role which discrimination plays in disadvantaging people with disabilities. Disability policy is increasingly being reoriented from caretaking to work-promoting, from segregation to integration, and from welfare to civil rights. The adoption of disability anti-discrimination legislation reflected this new policy direction. Disability anti-discrimination law typically seeks to offer protection of individuals with disabilities against unfair or unfavorable treatment on the ground of disability and to strengthen their societal position. The purpose of the law is to combat elements of disability discrimination and create equality of opportunity for people with disabilities. Many commentators contended that the law had many defects to achieve this purpose, They argued that anti-discrimination law should resonate with its fundamental principles. On the basis of the social perspective of disability, it must be directed at the removal of barriers to full participation for disabled people. But in many cases it included the elements perpetuating the medical perspective and problematizing the disabled people. Because the definition of disability, especially it's using of concepts with medical implication aroused this criticisms, the paper studies the legal issues in comparing five anti-discrimination laws. The review focused on the debating terms, such as 'impairment', 'substantially limited' and 'perceived disability.' More recently legislated laws tend to adopting more broad definitions and retrenching medically oriented terms.