Labour Law Human Rights And Social Justice Liber Amicorum In Honour Of Prof Dr Ruth Ben Israel

Dignity, Alvin L. Goldman

On the occasion of the official ‘retirement’ of the eminent labour law scholar Antoine Jacobs, a number of his colleagues – themselves well-respected in the field of labour law and industrial relations – have assembled this volume of essays to manifest the breadth and variety of this great professor’s work. The authors pay particular attention to the tension, always present in Jacobs’s critical research, of traditional values with an acute awareness of emerging realities. He approached labour law, not merely as a series of static issues concerning workers and employers, but as an evolving discipline that persistently challenged its socio-political context. Among the wide range of issues considered in this collection – all of them prominent in Jacobs’s work – are the following: the right to work; the right to strike versus the freedom to strike; the role of the European Union in national labour law; transnational collective bargaining; social security issues; labour law and the social teaching of churches; bankruptcy; and more.

All over the world a different kind of labour law is in the process of formation; in Gramsci's phrase, this is an interregnum when the old is dying and the new is struggling to be born. This book, to which an internationally distinguished group of scholars has contributed, examines the future of labour law from a wide variety of perspectives. Issues covered include the ideology of New Labour law; the employment relationship; the public/private divide; termination of employment; equality law; corporate governance; collective bargaining; workers' participation; strikes; international labour standards; the role of EU law; the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; labour law and development in Southern Africa; and the impact of globalisation. The essays are written in honour of the outstanding labour lawyer Professor Sir Bob Hepple QC, who has contributed to so many areas of this dynamic field.

Since 1945, socially moderated market economies have formed the cornerstone of the European socioeconomic model. Now, however due to powerful global economic, political and demographic tendencies tensions between social and economic interests and values are increasing. These developments create an urgent need for answers, actions and measures on the European level. This wide-ranging but focused collection of essays approaches this important trend from multiple perspectives. Compiled in honour of the major European labour law scholar Teun Jaspers, it encompasses a broad spectrum of analyses and insights by forty-one distinguished contributors from seven countries. Four major tensions are identified: between the European and national level, between fundamental rights and economic freedoms, between workers and employers, and between soft and hard law instruments. Throughout, a comparative approach is emphasized, not only within the EU but also between the EU and China and South Africa. Among the many topics covered are the following: relocation of labour to low-wage countries both within and outside the EU; conditions for tempering the excesses of the free labour market; the legal weight of voluntary standards such as codes of conduct; extending the scope of application of corporate social responsibility norms to transnational enterprises; pressure on national social law due to flexibilization, deregulation and individualization; contract termination protection; employability and training of employees; fixed-term work in the wake of the Mangold ruling; adjustment of working conditions for ill and disabled workers; right to strike; and restructuring of enterprises. In light of the Lisbon strategy, the authors address how the various tensions should be reconciled, especially in the context of the flexicurity approach. The book will be of great interest to academics and practitioners for its clear categorization of the issues which must be overcome when regulating employment and social policy in the context of todayand’s EU multilevel legal order. It pays detailed attention to the legal questions raised by emerging European labour and employment policies in respect of their specific materialization, the opportunities they offer, their feasibility, and the threats they pose to traditional workerand’s protection and, more generally, to traditional concepts of labour law.

Presents innovative perspectives on the moral and legal obligations of individuals and institutions toward workers in the global era.

Concerns associated with globalisation of markets, exacerbated by the 'credit crunch', have placed pressure on many nation states to make their labour markets more 'flexible'. In so doing, many states have sought to reduce labour standards and to diminish the influence of trade unions as the advocates of such standards. One response to this development, both nationally and internationally, has been to emphasise that workers' rights are fundamental human rights. This collection of essays examines whether this is an appropriate or effective strategy. The book begins by considering the translation of human rights discourse into labour standards, namely how theory might be put into practice. The remainder of the book tests hypotheses posited in the first chapter and is divided into three parts. The first part investigates, through a number of national case studies, how, in practice, workers' rights are treated as human rights in the domestic legal context. These ten chapters cover African, American, Asian, European, and Pacific countries. The second part consists of essays which analyse the operation of regional or international systems for human rights promotion, and their particular relevance to the treatment of workers' rights as human rights. The final part consists of chapters which explore regulatory alternatives to the traditional use of human rights law. The book concludes by considering the merits of various regulatory approaches.