For twenty years, the law of non-discrimination has been considerably extended. The qualification of « discrimination » is currently used in many instances to denounce numerous unequal treatments.

But what about its real uses? Why and how do people decide to report discrimination in the courts? What difficulties do they encounter?

This book focuses on the appropriation of the category of discrimination in labor litigation. Based on extensive ethnographic work with plaintiffs and legal intermediaries (CGT union or SOS Racisme), it retraces the difficult path of the victims before the labor courts (prud’hommes) and the strategies developed to make the law more effective.

Based on the contributions of a pragmatist-oriented sociology of law, the book shows how legal norms are capable of punctually restoring justice in the workplace.

Turning law into a real lever for equality will depend on the ability of the advocacy organizations to reconcile legal grammar with a concern for the victims and a transformative horizon of social practices.