The topic of discrimination in the law of employment is one of the growth industries of our time. The issue covers the gamut from race, to sex, to disability and to age. This last category is in its own way perhaps the most important because the dogged insistence that age be disregarded or de-emphasised in employment decisions cuts against the grain of the employment policy of virtually every well managed private firm. With a statute prohibiting mandatory retirement policies recently taking effect in New Zealand, the whole subject of age discrimination and employment law is even more topical than usual. As an outsider, I will not dwell in detail on the New Zealand statute, but will instead try to place the overarching issues in a wider international context. The problems surrounding anti-discrimination laws are far from unique to New Zealand and afflict many other countries, including the United States.