Lambda's return type deduction for a pointer to member action doesn't honour the object constness. Regardless of the object constness, the return type is always a non const reference to the member type. The following code illustrates the issue: struct aux { aux() : b(1) {} int b; }; struct aux_ptr { aux_ptr(aux *ptr=NULL) : m_ptr(ptr) {} ~aux_ptr() { delete m_ptr; } template <class R> R &operator->*(R aux::*m) { return m_ptr->*m; } template <class R> const R &operator->*(R aux::*m) const { return m_ptr->*m; } private: aux *m_ptr; }; int main() { // This compiles nicely aux_ptr ptr(new aux()); cout << (_1->*&aux::b)(ptr) << endl; // This fails to compile. const aux_ptr cptr(new aux()); cout << (_1->*&aux::b)(cptr) << endl; return 0; } The second part should compile if other_action<member_pointer_action> honoured _1's constness. Thanks, Rodolfo Lima