Global Governance of Labor Rights: Assessing the Effectiveness of Transnational Public and Private Policy Initiatives

Stories and images of collapsed factories, burned down sweatshops, imprisoned migrant workers, child workers and many other violations of internationally recognized labor rights continue to spread across the globe. This highly topical book examines the different instruments which are intended to protect labor rights on a transnational scale, and asks whether they make a difference.

With perspectives from law, management, sociology, political science and political economy, the topics discussed include the protection of international labor rights in a globalizing economy, the EU’s social dimension in its external trade relations, Asian and US perspectives on labor rights in international trade agreements, the role of (trade) unions in global labor governance and the transformative capacity of private labor governance regimes.

Academics and advanced students from different disciplines will benefit from the up-to-date empirical material in this study. Policy-makers, NGOs and Unions will find the discussions of the instruments used to protect labor rights of great value to their work.