Duke v Reliance [1988] 1 All ER 626

Respondent was a company that had a policy that people should be sacked once they reach retirement age and Plaintiff sued because she said this was discriminatory.

The HL said that under English law this was not illegal, due to a provision in Sex Discrimination Act 1975 which allowed such discrimination.

• The HL denied that it had to construe the act within the meaning of EC directives and that the directives could not distort the meaning of the act.

This is clearly a very narrow view of the extent to which national courts must interpret their laws in compliance with the EC directives. It also seems to contradict the position in Marleasing.

Also NB court deciding issue for itself without referral