This new Yearbook reviews the significant developments at European level regarding disability law and policy. The field of disability law and policy is both new and rapidly expanding at European level. It covers a disparate range of subject areas including non-discrimination, transport, education, employment and housing. For the first time, the Yearbook draws all of the relevant developments together and provides an indispensable reference work for lawyers, public policy analysts, researchers, government agencies and civil society groups.

The Yearbook contains a series of essays on current challenges and developments from senior analysts and academics in the field. It aims to provide critical insight in the evolution of European disability law and policy and offers an analysis of pressing challenges in a broad range of fields.

The core of the Yearbook consists of a review of the preceding year’s significant events, as well as policy and legal developments within the institutions of the European Union. It reviews major EU policy developments, studies and other publications, legislative proposals, and non-discrimination case law from the European Court of Justice, as well as the outcomes of major conferences and other relevant events.

The Yearbook also reviews the relevant developments on disability issues within the Council of Europe and recounts for example, the work of the Committee of Ministers, the emerging case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the growing disability jurisprudence of the European Social Charter as well as developments within the other treaty monitoring bodies of the Council of Europe, such as the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the Framework Convention for the Protection of Minorities.

The relevant work of other European level bodies in the field of disability including the OECD and the European Conference of Transport Ministers, especially with respect to emergency planning and disability, is also reviewed. An account is given of the relevant activities of various European level civil society groups including principally the European Disability Forum, the European Coalition for Community Living, and the Mental Disability Advocacy Group.

The Yearbook also contains a bibliography of major publications in the field of European disability law and policy as well as an annex containing the full text of the most significant documents and policy developments.

About the Yearbook:
‘[t]he European Yearbook of Disability Law is a significant undertaking by its editors and contributors. Its continuation in future years offers a very fertile ground for the exploration and development of both principles and legal practice in the European context. […] It is certainly vital as a reference work for those wishing to distill and update their knowledge of the complexity of the European institutional context (particularly for students and teachers of international disability law or of European law).’
Mark Priestley in (2011) Disability & Society, 245