Death of Labour Law? questions the on-going relevance of labour law in Australia and other Western industrialised societies in the twenty-first century. The tension between economic flexibility for business and social stability for workers is set against the backdrop of the Rudd government's 'Forward with Fairness' reform agenda and similar proposals for change in the European Union. Martin Vranken retraces the birth and subsequent growth of labour law and argues that it is essentially a mechanism for employee protection, not labour market regulation. Death of Labour Law? offers a fresh perspective on the current debate about labour law and the role of the state in Australian industrial and workplace relations.

Throughout the industrial world, the discipline of labor law has fallen into deep philosophical and policy crisis, at the same time as new theoretical approaches make it a field of considerable intellectual ferment. Modern labor law evolved in a symbiotic relationship with a postwar institutional and policy agenda, the social, economic and political underpinnings of which have gradually eroded in the context of accelerating international economic integration and wage-competition. These essays--which are the product of a transnational comparative dialog among academics and practitioners in labor law and related legal fields, including social security, immigration, trade, and development--identify, analyze, and respond to some of the conceptual and policy challenges posed by globalization.

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.

Labour Law Utopias: Post-Growth & Post-Productive Work Approaches engages with new socioeconomic ideas that look beyond the current growth-driven competitive market economy. Building on analysis of economic growth, as well as the limits of the logic of human productivity and competitivity for workers and the environment, it explores alternative approaches and what those will mean for work in general, and labour law in particular. The concept of 'post-growth' is used to rethink the purpose of the economy by looking beyond merely increasing wealth, consumption, and production, considering what this means for the position of work in society as well as the individual worker. The post-productive work approach is used to question the centrality of economically productive work and its regulation in labour laws. The chapters in this book take a progressive approach and discuss whether and how labour law can contribute to the emancipation of work from the constraints of growth and productivity by revisiting the value, organization, and impact of work. With these utopian ideas for labour law, the contributions in this book present inspirational 'dots on the horizon' that could guide the direction of changes in labour law as it navigates issues such as the implementation of digital and green solutions, the energy crisis, migration, rising inequality, and precariousness. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

To what extent is labour law an autonomous field of study? This book is based upon the papers written by a group of leading international scholars on this theme, delivered at a conference to mark Professor Mark Freedland's retirement from his teaching fellowship in Oxford. The chapters explore the boundaries and connections between labour law and other legal disciplines such as company law, competition law, contract law and public law; labour law and legal methodologies such as reflexive governance and comparative law; and labour law and other disciplines such as ethics, economics and political philosophy. In so doing, it represents a cross-section of the most sophisticated current work at the cutting edge of labour law theory.

Successive UK governments have pursued ambitious programmes of private sector competition in public services that they promise will deliver cheaper, higher quality services, but not at the expense of public sector workers. The public procurement rules (most significantly Directive 2004/18/EC) often provide the legal framework within which the Government must deliver on its promises. This book goes behind the operation of these rules and explores their interaction with the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE); regulations that were intended to offer workers protection when their employer is restructuring his business. The practical effectiveness of both sources of regulation is critiqued from a social protection perspective by reference to empirical findings from a case study of the competitive tendering exercise for management of HMP Birmingham that was held by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) between 2009 and 2011. Overall, the book challenges the Government's portrayal of competition policies as self-evident sources of improvement for public services. It highlights the damage that can be caused by competitive processes to social capital and the organisational, cultural and employment strengths of public services. Its main conclusions are that prison privatisation processes are driven by procedure rather than aims and outcomes and that the complexity of the public procurement rules, coupled with inadequate commissioning expertise and organisational planning, can result in the production of contracts that lack aspiration and are insufficiently focused upon improvement or social sustainability. In sum, the book casts doubt upon the desirability and suitability of using competition as a policy mechanism to improve public services.

Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this monograph on Chile not only describes and analyses the legal aspects of labour relations, but also examines labour relations practices and developing trends. It provides a survey of the subject that is both usefully brief and sufficiently detailed to answer most questions likely to arise in any pertinent legal setting. Both individual and collective labour relations are covered in ample detail, with attention to such underlying and pervasive factors as employment contracts, suspension of the contracts, dismissal laws and covenant of non-competition, as well as international private law. The author describes all important details of the law governing hours and wages, benefits, intellectual property implications, trade union activity, employers’ associations, workers’ participation, collective bargaining, industrial disputes, and much more. Building on a clear overview of labour law and labour relations, the book offers practical guidance on which sound preliminary decisions may be based. It will find a ready readership among lawyers representing parties with interests in Chile, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative trends in laws affecting labour and labour relations.

Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this monograph on Belgium not only describes and analyses the legal aspects of labour relations, but also examines labour relations practices and developing trends. It provides a survey of the subject that is both usefully brief and sufficiently detailed to answer most questions likely to arise in any pertinent legal setting. Both individual and collective labour relations are covered in ample detail, with attention to such underlying and pervasive factors as employment contracts, suspension of the contracts, dismissal laws and covenant of non-competition, as well as international private law. The author describes all important details of the law governing hours and wages, benefits, intellectual property implications, trade union activity, employers’ associations, workers’ participation, collective bargaining, industrial disputes, and much more. Building on a clear overview of labour law and labour relations, the book offers practical guidance on which sound preliminary decisions may be based. It will find a ready readership among lawyers representing parties with interests in Belgium, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative trends in laws affecting labour and labour relations.

Labour Law in Namibia is the first comprehensive and scholarly text to analyse labour law in the country, the Labour Act of 2007, and how it affects the common law principles of employment relations. Concise and extensively researched, it examines the Labour Act in detail in 16 chapters that include the employment relationship; duties of employers and employees; unfair dismissal and other disciplinary actions; the settlement of industrial disputes; and collective bargaining. Over 500 relevant cases are cited, including court rulings in other countries, and comparative references to the labour laws of other Commonwealth countries, notably South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and the United Kingdom, making it a reference and comparative source book for common law countries in the SADC region and beyond. Written by an authority in the field of labour law, this is a unique reference guide for key players in labour relations, including teachers and students of law, legal researchers and practitioners, human resource and industrial relations practitioners, employers and employer's organisations, employees and trade unions, public servants and public policy advisors, and the academic community internationally. In clear and uncomplicated English, the book is accessible to professional and lay people. A comprehensive list of contents, tables of cases and statues, bibliography and index, assist the reader.

Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this monograph on the Czech Republic not only describes and analyses the legal aspects of labour relations, but also examines labour relations practices and developing trends. It provides a survey of the subject that is both usefully brief and sufficiently detailed to answer most questions likely to arise in any pertinent legal setting. Both individual and collective labour relations are covered in ample detail, with attention to such underlying and pervasive factors as employment contracts, suspension of the contracts, dismissal laws and covenant of non-competition, as well as international private law. The author describes all important details of the law governing hours and wages, benefits, intellectual property implications, trade union activity, employers’ associations, workers’ participation, collective bargaining, industrial disputes, and much more. Building on a clear overview of labour law and labour relations, the book offers practical guidance on which sound preliminary decisions may be based. It will find a ready readership among lawyers representing parties with interests in the Czech Republic, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative trends in laws affecting labour and labour relations.