Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Widow's Pension And Gender Equality: Runkee V. United Kingdom, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

The long litigation saga involving the compatibility of UK legislation on survivors’ benefits appears to have come to a (not particularly glorious) end with the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) decision in Runkee and White v United Kingdom. This case involved a challenge to the compatibility of national law on the payment of widows’ pensions solely to women, similar to that considered by the House of Lords in Hooper and the ECtHR came to a similar conclusion holding that UK law was not incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.