Human Rights Labor Rights And International Trade

"A significant contribution to current legal, political, and economic discourse on workers in the global economy."—International and Comparative Law Quarterly

Recent years have witnessed growing concern over the controversial issue of trade and labour standards. This study provides the first comprehensive analysis of these questions and reviews evidence for a large number of countries throughout the world.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the new methods of transnational labour regulation that are emerging in response to globalisation.

Are efforts to protect workers' rights compatible with the forces of globalization? How can minimum standards designed to protect labour rights be implemented in a world in which national labour law is more and more at the mercy of international forces beyond its control? And does it makeany difference if we see rights such as the right to freedom of association, to non-discrimination in the workplace, to freedom from child labour, and to safe and healthy working conditions in terms of international human rights law? Or are they more appropriately seen as 'principles' to bepromoted as and where appropriate?The contributors to this volume argue that international agreements and institutions are of central importance if labour rights are to be protected in a globalized economy. But the report cards they give to the World Trade Organization, the European Union, NAFTA, and the Free Trade Agreement of theAmericas are generally very critical. While there is a strong rhetorical commitment to labour rights, at least on the part of the US and the EU, the substance of what has been achieved to date is hardly impressive. The role of the International Labour Organization is central and the authorsexplore some of the options that are open to governments, civil society, and the labour movement in the years ahead.

Images of tear-gas filled streets during the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle woke the world up to the fact that there was a major controversy brewing about the legitimacy of the ability of the organization and sister institutions to trump nationally enacted laws protecting the environment and human rights in the name of free trade. Francioni (law, U. of Siena) presents the contributions of 12 academics from the field of international law who, on the whole, recognize that the complaints of protestors are legitimate and real and recommend some specific policy and legal changes in the structures of the international financial institutions and in free trade treaties between countries. The articles separately focus on genetically modified organisms, intellectual property rights, environmental law, technology transfer, labor rights, human rights sanctions, child labor, and the impact of NAFTA on the environment. Distributed by ISBS. c. Book News Inc.

Faced with the economic pressures of globalization, many countries have sought to curb the fundamental right of workers to join trade unions and engage in collective action. In response, trade unions in developed countries have strategically used their own governments' commitments to human rights as a basis for resistance. Since the protection of human rights remains an important normative principle in global affairs, democratic countries cannot merely ignore their human rights obligations and must balance their international commitments with their desire to remain economically competitive and attractive to investors. Human Rights and Labor Solidarity analyzes trade unions' campaigns to link local labor rights disputes to international human rights frameworks, thereby creating external scrutiny of governments. As a result of these campaigns, states engage in what political scientist Susan L. Kang terms a normative negotiation process, in which governments, trade unions, and international organizations construct and challenge a broader understanding of international labor rights norms to determine whether the conditions underlying these disputes constitute human rights violations. In three empirically rich case studies covering South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Canada, Kang demonstrates that this normative negotiation process was more successful in creating stronger protections for trade unions' rights when such changes complemented a government's other political interests. She finds that states tend not to respect stronger economically oriented human rights obligations due to the normative power of such rights alone. Instead, trade union transnational activism, coupled with sufficient political motivations, such as direct economic costs or strong rule of law obligations, contributed to changes in favor of workers' rights.

The book examines how international economic law affects the ability of states to regulate labour. It analyses the interactions between relevant norms and explains how linkages between economic law and labour navigate between two notions: fair competition and fundamental rights.

This book provides a set of proposals for how best to guarantee effective enforcement of labour rights worldwide. The linkage between labour standards and global trade has been recurrent for some 200 years. At a time when the world is struggling to find a way out of crisis and is striving for economic growth, more than ever there is a need for up-to-date research on how to protect and promote labour rights in the global economy. This book explores the history of the field and also provides an overview of emerging trends and opportunities. It discusses the most recent problems including: the effectiveness and the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the second century of its existence, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its potential relevance in the protection of labour rights, the effectiveness of the US and the EU Generalised System of Preferences, the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) instruments on labour rights, and labour provisions in the international trade agreements concluded by the US and the EU. The book argues, inter alia, that trade agreements seem to be a useful tool to help pave the way out of the crisis and that the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) can be perceived as a model agreement and a symbol of a shift in perspective from long global supply chains to a focus on regional ones, local production, jobs and a rise in wages. The book will be essential reading for academics and students in the fields of human rights law, international labour law, industrial relations law, international sustainable development law, international economic law and international trade law. It will also be of interest to practitioners, non-government organisations (NGOs) and policy makers.