“The principle of equality and non-discrimination is part of the democratic ideal and is currently accepted as a minimum standard throughout the mainstream Western culture.
This book tends to highlight something that is often forgotten: the role played by the United States of America in the universal reaffirmation of the principle of equality. The struggle for equal rights is part of the United States history. From the 1776 Declaration of Independence to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the path taken was always progressive and evolutionary, so much so that it can be said that equality and non-discrimination, on one hand, and social mobility, on the other hand, are part of the “American Way of Life” and the “American Dream”.
The present book also contains a description of the legal framework regarding equality in access to employment in Portuguese speaking countries. The author concludes that despite the differences that typically exist between the legal systems of Common Law, in which the United States of America are included, and the Roman-Germanic systems, in which the Portuguese speaking countries are included, in some areas they intersect and said differences are blurred, namely regarding equality and non-discrimination in accessing employment.
This book is useful both to law and legal markers, lawyers and law students from the two legal systems. For the Portuguese, it is an opportunity to understand the role played by U.S. case law in addressing this subject; for the Americans, it can provide knowledge about the principle of equal access to employment applied in Portuguese speaking countries across four different continents, including Portugal (Europe), Brazil (South America), Angola (Africa) and East Timor (Asia)”.