Transnational Labour Law

It can no longer be denied that the centre of gravity in labour relations worldwide has shifted from governments to multinational companies and financial institutions. Accordingly, in contrast to traditional ‘international law’, which focuses on relations among nations and how they apply international conventions, a new approach is required: one of ‘transnational law’, which implies a horizontal perspective across world institutions, revealing new formulas of private regulation of economic and production relations. Nowhere is this perspective more important than in the applications of labour law.

This hugely innovative analysis projects, for the first time in such depth, the mixture of public and private regulation – both substantive and procedural – that characterizes employment relations virtually everywhere in the world today. The book’s detailed discussions of ILO and EU measures deal not with these organizations’ rules in themselves, but with the ways these organizations regulate private entities, because such regulations mark the limits and possibilities of labour action by multinationals.

In the course of his consistently engaging study, the author identifies and synthesizes such interrelated (and relatively new) new patterns of labour relations as the following:

• off-shoring;

• private labour contracts;

• global and regional employers’ associations;

• transnational collective bargaining;

• international trade unionism;

• company by-laws; and

• codes of conduct designed to declare corporate social responsibility.

The book provides often surprising information and analysis of the increasingly global use of employee participation in business management, transnational labour arbitration, and such conflict measures as strikes and boycotts. There is also consideration of transnational aspects of company crises, insolvency, and in-court and out-of-court settlement of labour disputes.

For its new and enlightening perspective on labour and employment relations, and the hitherto unexplored critical analysis and comment that such an approach entails, this book opens doors for legal practice and labour policymaking almost anywhere on earth. It will be of incalculable value for all concerned lawyers, jurists, and government officials for decades to come.

Features:

• First in-depth study to treat labour law transnationally – i.e., ‘horizontally’ across both private and public institutions

• Analyses and details the effects on labour relations of global corporate hegemony

• Describes and analyses labour-related movements worldwide ensuing from the triumph of globalization

Benefits:

• Practice with a new and sharpened perspective on today’s labour relations

• Benefit from a deeply informed synthesis of new formulas and patterns in the world of work

• Gain insight into the interaction of public and private rules affecting the employment relationship