Population ageing presents huge global challenges for law and society. The World Health Organization (2018) has estimated that between 2015 and 2050 those aged over 60 years will nearly double (from 12 to 22%) and that by 2020 this proportion of the population will exceed the number of children aged under five. The European Commission (2018) has similarly stated that the numbers of persons aged 65 and over in the European Union is increasing proportionately to the rest of the population. As a concept and experience, ageing involves health and welfare, employment, economic vulnerability, capacity, autonomy and personhood issues, some of which are shared with the rest of the population and others that are particular to older persons. If states and society are to afford genuine equal respect for our rights and dignity as we grow older, then it is essential that law and policy properly understand and reflect this.

Elder law is still an emerging research discipline and, to date, discourse concerning how the law relates to ageing populations has tended to be somewhat piecemeal and disjointed. Elder Law; Evolving European Perspectives, edited by Professor Ann Numhauser-Henning of Lund University, is therefore a most welcome resource. Recognising that effective elder law research necessarily requires an appreciation of the interrelatedness of issues connected to ageing, this book provides an inter-disciplinary approach to relevant legal developments across Europe. It does this by drawing on contributions from academics of various different law disciplines based mainly at Lund University but also from universities elsewhere in Sweden and from Australia, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

Chapter 1 provides a useful and contextual overview and background to law and ageing and the content of the remainder of the book, with Chapter 2, ‘Demographic Developments and Economic Challenges in an Ageing Europe’, lending even greater meaning to this. Conceptual and theoretical perspectives are offered in Chapters 3–6 which look at topics such as the right to work, the scope of autonomy, vulnerability and competing generations in the labour market. Chapters 7–15 then go on to consider a wealth of different aspects of elder law. These include equality and age discrimination in broad terms, extension of working lives, employment protection, pensions, migrant pensioners, private and public responsibilities for elder care, social security, health-care and medical research, inheritance, and dementia and autonomy.

The discussion and arguments presented throughout the book are rich, often complex and cover a wide range of socio-legal considerations. To gain true insight into these requires, of course, a reading of the actual text. However, two common themes emerge from all, or at least most, of the individual chapters. Firstly, and fundamentally, is the issue of equality and non-discrimination in the context of ageing. A constant thread in the arguments across the book is the need to appreciate fully what equal and non-discriminatory treatment, and enjoyment of rights, mean for older persons. By, rightly, considering the realities of the socio-legal position of older persons, the discourse in the book very much mirrors the emerging international rights enjoyment paradigm for persons with particular characteristics such as race, gender and, most recently, in relation to disability. In summary, this means providing the necessary tailored support to enjoy and exercise rights on an equal basis with others – which includes creating the necessary structural and institutional environments in order for this to occur – and only limiting rights on the same basis for everyone without reference to age or impairment specifically related to this characteristic. In no way would I wish to detract from the overall excellent analysis in and content of this excellent book but some more discussion of this new paradigm in the context of older persons would have been interesting. Secondly, related to the above point, and equally important, are definitions and potential problems that arise through providing these. How do we define ‘ageing’ and ‘elder’ and, therefore, by extension, ‘elder law’? It is made clear on many occasions within the book that prohibiting discriminatory practices associated with a person's age in certain areas may have unintended disadvantageous consequences in others. This certainly begs the question of whether international and regional human rights instruments that are tailored to a specific characteristic – rather than ones which are tailored to the incidence of more general need (and then aligned to such particular need) – are such a good idea. Elder Law; Evolving European Perspectives is clearly presented and thought provoking. It states that will appeal to academic scholars and students in law and social sciences as well as legal practitioners and policy makers. I agree with this.