Labour law has always been preoccupied with boundaries. One can either be an 'employee' or not, an 'employer' or not, and the answer dictates who comes within the scope of labour law, for better or worse. But such divisions have always been difficult, and in recent years their shortcomings have become ever more pronounced. The proliferation of new work arrangements and heightened global competition have exposed a world-wide crisis in the regulation of work. It is therefore timely to re-assess the idea of labour law, and the concepts, in particular the age-old distinctions - that are used to delimit the field. This collection of essays, by leading experts from around the world, explores the frontiers of our understanding of labour law itself. Contributors: Harry Arthurs, Paul Benjamin, Hugh Collins, Guy Davidov, Paul Davies, Simon Deakin, Mark Freedland, Judy Fudge, Adrin Goldin, Alan Hyde, Jean-Claude Javillier, Csilla Kollonay Lehoczky, Brian Langille, Enriqué Marin, Kamala Sankaran, Silvana Sciarra, Katherine Stone and Anne Trebilcock.

A stimulating, authoritative account of international employment law written by a leading figure who for many years has shaped global policy, striving to implement fairer working conditions worldwide. We are expertly guided though the context and development of labour law, making this book ideal for study or research.

This volume explores the societal goals behind labour laws - through an analysis of normative justifications and critiques - and examines what actions are needed to better advance these goals, by way of purposive interpretation and legal reform.

The aim of this book is to explore labour law's conceptual and normative narrative. If labour law is informed by the wider political and economic landscape within which it operates, then given the declining prevalence of the post-war model of full employment within a formal welfare state regime, what shape does or should labour law assume in response to the transformation of the political economy in countries of the global North? Correspondingly, what is the proper role to be played by labour law and labour relations institutions in the development process within industrialising countries of the global South, where informal employment has long been, and remains, the predominant form? Drawing on the expertise of leading labour law scholars, this collection addresses those questions by examining the growth and continued prevalence of informality. Offering research that is both empirically grounded and doctrinally astute, the book explores the changing character of labour law in the global North and South.

At the core of all societies and economies are human beings deploying their energies and talents in productive activities - that is, at work. The law governing human productive activity is a large part of what determines outcomes in terms of social justice, material wellbeing, and the sustainability of both. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that work is heavily regulated. This Handbook examines the 'law of work', a term that includes legislation setting employment standards, collective labour law, workplace discrimination law, the law regulating the contract of employment, and international labour law. It covers the regulation of relations between employer and employee, as well as labour unions, but also discussions on the contested boundaries and efforts to expand the scope of some laws regulating work beyond the traditional boundaries. Written by a team of experts in the field of labour law, the Handbook offers a comprehensive review and analysis, both theoretical and critical. It includes 60 chapters, divided into four parts. Part A establishes the fundamentals, including the historical development of the law of work, why it is needed, the conceptual building blocks, and the unsettled boundaries. Part B considers the core concerns of the law of work, including the contract of employment doctrines, main protections in employment legislation, the regulation of collective relations, discrimination, and human rights. Part C looks at the international and transnational dimension of the law of work. The final Part examines overarching themes, including discussion of recent developments such as gig work, online work, artificial intelligence at work, sustainable development, amongst others.

Labour law is widely considered to be in crisis by scholars of the field. This crisis has an obvious external dimension - labour law is attacked for impeding efficiency, flexibility, and development; vilified for reducing employment and for favouring 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 labour law. There is also an internal challenge, as labour 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 labour 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 labour laws - whether they are scholars, practitioners, judges, policy-makers, or workers and employers.

This new edition to the series will provide an up-to-date textbook covering a wide-range of employment and labour law issues which affect the Commonwealth Caribbean. Initially the book will embark on a comparative analysis of employment and labour law in Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados, as a reference point for distinguishing the laws of other Commonwealth Caribbean jurisdictions. The book will continue to examine how the law operates within the legal systems of the Caribbean, taking into account the umbilical link to British jurisprudence and the persuasive precedent of other Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the impact this has had on the growth and development of the area. Commonwealth Caribbean Employment and Labour Law will be essential reading for students enrolled on Employment Law, Discrimination and Dismissal Law courses in the Caribbean.

Forty years ago Amartya Sen introduced to the world a novel approach to the idea of equality: the notion of 'basic capability' as 'a morally relevant dimension' and the claim that we should focus upon equality of basic capabilities ('a person being able to do certain basic things'). These ideas, as developed by Sen and Martha C. Nussbaum, have launched an academic armada now proceeding under the flag of the 'capability approach' (CA). While that flag has ventured far and wide and engaged many areas of inquiry, this volume of essays is the first to explore how CA might shed light upon labour law. The capabilities approach can illuminate our understanding of labour law across three dimensions. Part I looks at the nature of the basic relationship between CA and labour law-do they share common ground or disagree about what is important? Can the CA provide a normative 'foundation' for labour law? Part II goes further by examining the relationship of the CA and other well-established perspectives on labour law, including economics, history, critical theory, restorative justice, and human rights. Part III examines the possible relevance of the CA to a range of specific labour law issues, such as freedom of association, age discrimination in the workplace, trade, employment policy, and sweatshop goods.

Economic pressure, as well as transnational and domestic corporate policies, has placed labor law under severe stress. National responses are so deeply embedded in institutions reflecting local traditions that meaningful comparison is daunting. This bo

The global financial crisis and subsequent increase in social inequality has led in many cases to a redrawing of the boundaries between formal and informal work. This interdisciplinary volume explores the role of informal work in today’s global economy, presenting economic, legal, sociological, historical, anthropological, political and cultural perspectives on the topic. Workers and the Global Informal Economy explores varying definitions of informality in the backdrop of neo-liberal market logic, exploring how it manifests itself in different regions around the world, and its relationship with formal work. This volume demonstrates how neo-liberalism has been instrumental in accelerating informality and has resulted in the increasingly precarious position of the informal worker. Using different methodological approaches and regional focuses, this book considers key questions such as whether workers exercise choice over their work; how constrained such choices are; how social norms shape such choices; how work affects their well-being and agency; and what role culture plays in the determination of informality. This interdisciplinary collection will be of interest to policy-makers and researchers engaging with informality from different disciplinary and regional perspectives.