Part 1 (Weeks 1-6): 21 February 2022 – 30 March 2022

Taught by Dr. Manoj Dias-Abey, Lecturer in Labour Law at the University of Bristol, UK.

The first part of this course provides a survey of the major systems of EU, international, and transnational labour law that regulate working conditions. We pay particular attention to how these different systems interact and influence each other. As well as focusing solely on the technical law, this course will incorporate insights from other disciplines such as political economy, sociology, and policy studies to gain a better understanding of how work is governed. In this sense, this course sits within the socio-legal tradition in legal scholarship, which aims to study law within its social, economic and political contexts. To ensure that the material that we cover is contemporary and relevant, we engage with some cutting-edge issues such as the future of work, work in the “gig economy”, migrant workers, trafficking, and labour activism.

Each of our two-hour classes will be run as follows:

• 50 minute lecture from me about the topic. I will do most of the talking but you will have the opportunity to ask questions and seek clarification.
• 10 minute break.
• 50 minute small group discussion around a reading that you will be expected to read before each class. These readings have been selected because either they highlight important issues or raise provocative questions; please read the pieces critically and think about whether you agree with the authors’ arguments. Where I have not provided a weblink, I will be uploading copies of the readings one week in advance to our electronic learning management system.
• 10 minute summary of main learning by me.


Please note that the first 4 weeks (21/2-16/3) will be taking place in person in X. In the final two weeks (21/3-30-3), classes will be held online (details to follow).


Week 1—The future of work, sources of labour law, and the LPE approach

A. Monday (21/2): The future of work

Reading:

• Dominique Méda, ‘The future of work: The meaning and value of work in Europe’ (ILO Research Paper No. 18, October 2016), https://tinyurl.com/yn54456k.
B. Tuesday (22/2): Sources of labour law—national, EU, international and transnational

Reading:

• Jeremias Prassl, ‘The interaction of EU law and national law: between myth and reality’ in Alan Bogg, Cathryn Costello and Anne C.L. Davies (eds.), Research Handbook in EU Labour Law (Edward Elgar 2016), 42-63.

C. Wednesday (23/2): A law & political economy approach

Reading:

• Sam Aber and Caroline Parker, Law and Political Economy: A (Very) Brief Field Guide for 1Ls, Law & Political Economy Blog (30 August 2021), https://tinyurl.com/ydt6epcj.

Week 2—Work in the “gig economy”

A. Monday (28/2): Regulating working conditions in the ‘gig economy’ in the EU

Reading:

• Antonio Aloisi, ‘Platform work in Europe: Lessons learned, legal developments and challenges ahead’ (2022) 13:1 European Labour Law Journal, 1-26.

B. Tuesday (1/3): Emerging case law on employee/worker status—spotlight on the UK

Reading:

• Joe Atkinson and Hitesh Dhorajiwala, ‘The future of employment: Purposive interpretation and the role of contract after Uber’ (2021) Modern Law Review (early online).

C. Wednesday (2/3): Trade unions and platform workers

Reading:

• Alessio Bertolini and Ruth Dukes, ‘Trade Unions and Platform Workers in the UK: Worker representation in the shadow of the law’ (2021) 50:4 Industrial Law Journal 662-688.







Week 3—Migrant workers

A. Monday (7/3): EU free movement, third country nationals, seasonal worker directive, and posted workers

Reading:

• Elspeth Guild, ‘The EU’s Internal Market and the Fragmentary Nature of EU Labour Migration’ in Cathryn Costello and Mark Freedland (eds.), Migrants at Work: Immigration and Vulnerability in Labour Law (OUP, 2014), Ch 6.

B. Tuesday (8/3): Regulating temporary labour migration

Reading:

• Judy Fudge, ‘The precarious migrant status and precarious employment: The paradox of international rights for migrant workers’ (Metropolis British Columbia Working Paper Series, October 2011), https://tinyurl.com/2p8s2ssh

C. Wednesday (9/3): Migrant workers, labour markets and law

Reading:

• Manoj Dias-Abey, ‘Determining the impact of migration on labour markets: The mediating role of legal institutions’ (2021) 50:4 Industrial Law Journal 532-557.

Week 4—Anti trafficking

A. Monday (14/3): Forced labour, ‘modern day slavery’ and anti-trafficking (incl. ECtHR case law on art. 4)

Reading:

• Council of Europe, ‘Guide on Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights: Prohibition on slavery and forced labour’ (Registry, 2022), https://tinyurl.com/3m6ntau8.

B. Tuesday (15/3): A labour law approach to addressing trafficking

Reading:

• Hila Shamir, ‘A labor paradigm for human trafficking’ (2012) 60:1 UCLA Law Review, 78-135.


C. Wednesday (16/3): Case study—The Italian agriculture sector (Guest speaker: Gavriel Nelken, PhD candidate at the University of Bristol and former organiser with Campagne in Lotta)

Reading:

• Tobias Jones and Ayo Awokoya, ‘Are your tinned tomatoes picked by slave labour?’, The Guardian (20 June 2019), https://tinyurl.com/2p8hm8kv.

Week 5—International labour organisation & labour standards

A. Monday (21/3): History of the ILO, tripartism and the convention system

Reading:

• Guy Ryder, ‘The International Labour Organisation: The next hundred years’ (2015) 57:5 Journal of Industrial Relations 748-757.

B. Tuesday (22/3): Challenges to the ILO system

Reading:

• Brian Langille, ‘Core labour rights—The true story (reply to Alston)’ (2005) 16:3 European Journal of International Law 409-437.

C. Wednesday (23/3): The Domestic Workers Convention (C-189)

Reading:

• Adelle Blackett, “Transnational labour law and collective autonomy for marginalized workers: Reflections on decent work for domestic workers’ in Adelle Blackett and Anne Trebilcock (eds.), Research Handbook on Transnational Labour Law (Edward Elgar 215), 230-243.


Week 6—Transnational labour law

A. Monday (28/3): Labour rights through trade conditionality

Reading:

• Sofi Thanhauser, ‘Behind the label: How the US stitched up the Honduras garment industry’, The Guardian, 25 January, 2022, https://tinyurl.com/4s6yjwdv.




B. Tuesday (29/3): Private codes of conduct

Reading:

• Dias-Abey, ‘Using Law to Support Social Movement-Led Collective Bargaining Structures in Supply Chains’ (2019) 32 Australian Journal of Labour Law, 123-145.

C. Wednesday (30/3): Revision

Reading:

• TBC.