The Idea of Labour Law

by Guy Davidov, Brian Langille

Overview

Labor law is widely considered to be in crisis by scholars of the field. This crisis has an obvious external dimension - labor law is attacked for impeding efficiency, flexibility, and development; vilified for reducing employment and for favoring already well placed employees over less fortunate ones; and discredited for failing to cover the most vulnerable workers and workers in the "informal sector". These are just some of the external challenges to labor law. There is also an internal challenge, as labor lawyers themselves increasingly question whether their discipline is conceptually coherent, relevant to the new empirical realities of the world of work, and normatively salient in the world as we now know it.

This book responds to such fundamental challenges by asking the most fundamental questions: What is labor law for? How can it be justified? And what are the normative premises on which reforms should be based? There has been growing interest in such questions in recent years. In this volume the contributors seek to take this body of scholarship seriously and also to move it forward. Its aim is to provide, if not answers which satisfy everyone, intellectually nourishing food for thought for those interested in understanding, explaining and interpreting labor laws - whether they are scholars, practitioners, judges, policy-makers, or workers and employers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199693610
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/28/2011
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	454
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Guy Davidov is Vice-Dean and Elias Lieberman Chair in Labour Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He studied at Tel-Aviv University (LLB) and the University of Toronto (LLM, SJD) and has previously been a faculty member at the University of Haifa, before joining the Hebrew University in 2007. He is co-editor of the Israeli journal Labour, Society and Law, and a member of the executive board of the International Society for Labour Law and Social Security. He has published widely on labour law issues, especially dealing with the normative justifications for different labour regulations.

Brian Langille is Professor of Law at the University of Toronto. He has twice served as Associate Dean (Graduate Studies), served as Acting Dean in 2003-04, and as Interim Dean in 2005. A native of Nova Scotia, he received a B.A. from Acadia, his LL.B from Dalhousie Law school, and the B.C.L. from Oxford. He taught at Dalhousie Law School prior to joining the University of Toronto in 1983. His numerous publications are concerned with labour law and legal theory. Professor Langille was a member of Canadian delegations to both the Governing Body and the International Labour Conference of the ILO (International Labour Organization), a consultant to the Federal and various provincial governments on domestic and international labour issues, a consultant to the ILO, and a Rapporteur to the OECD, and a member of the executive of the International Society for Labour Law and Social Security. He is an editor of the International Labour Law Reports, and a member of the Labour Law Casebook Group.

Table of Contents

Understanding Labour Law: A Timeless Idea, a Timed-Out Idea, or an Idea Whose Time has Now Come?, Guy Davidov and Brian LangilleThe Idea of Labour Law in Historical Context1. Labour Law After Labour, Harry Arthurs2. Factors Influencing the Making and Transformation of Labour Law in Europe, Bob Hepple3. Re-Inventing Labour Law?, Manfred Weiss4. Hugo Sinzheimer and the Constitutional Function of Labour Law, Ruth Dukes5. Global Conceptualizations and Local Constructions on the Idea of Labour Law, Adrian Goldin6. The Idea of the Idea of Labour Law: A Parable, Alan HydeNormative Foundations of the Idea of Labour Law7. Labour Law's Theory of Justice, Brian Langille8. Labour as a 'Fictive Commodity': Radically Reconceptualizing Labour Law, Judy Fudge9. Theories of Rights as Justifications for Labour Law, Hugh Collins10. The Contribution of Labour Law to Economic and Human Development, Simon DeakinNormative Foundations and Legal Ideas: Rethinking Existing Structures11. Re-Matching Labour Laws with Their Purpose, Guy Davidov12. The Legal Characterization of Personal Work Relations and the Idea of Labour Law, Mark Freedland and Nicola Kountouris13. Ideas of Labour Law - Views From the South, Paul Benjamin14. Informal Employment and the Challenges for Labour Law, Kamala Sankaran15. The Impossibility of Work Law, Noah Zatz16. Procurement Law to Enforce Labour Standards, Catherine Barnard17. Labor Activism in Local Politics: From CBAs to 'CBAs' and Beyond, Katherine V.W. Stone and Scott L. CummingsNew Labour Law Ideas: Rethinking Existing Boundaries18. The Broad Idea of Labour Law: Industrial Policy, Labour Market Regulation, and Decent Work, John Howe19. The Third Function of Labor Law: Distributing Labor Market Opportunities Among Workers, Guy Mundlak20. Beyond Collective Bargaining: Modern Unions as Agents of Social Solidarity, Gillian Lester21. From Conflict to Regulation: The Transformative Function of Labour Law, Julia Lopez, Consuelo Chacartegui, and Cesar G CantonNew Ideas of Labour Law from an International Perspective22. Out of the Shadows? The Non-Binding Multilateral Framework on Migration (2006) and Prospects for Using International Labour Regulation to Forge Global Labour Market Membership, Leah Vosko21. Flexible Bureaucracies in Labor Market Regulation, Michael Piore24. Collective Exit Strategies: New Ideas in Transnational Labour Law, Silvana Sciarra25. Emancipation in the Idea of Labour Law: Commoditization, Resistance and Distributive Justice beyond borders, Adelle Blackett

Editorial Reviews

"As the title suggests, this is a sweeping, philosophical, and substantial treatment of the topic of labour law. Thoughtful, wide-ranging, and passionate, it would likely be of interest to students and scholars who are interested in understanding and exploring this vital branch of law." -Thora Gislason, Canadian Law Library Review

From the Publisher