Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2018
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198825272.003.0001
Abstract
This chapter examines the relationship between labour law and its philosophical foundations. It suggests that it is essential to stand back from political compromises, which are often the subject of labour law scholarship, to consider the key attributes of the subject and its foundational goals and principles. It proposes that we need a normative account of labour law in order to assess its shortcomings and propose reforms, but also that the most important reasons for pursuing a philosophical agenda concern the continuing existence of the subject of labour law and the paradigm around which it is built. Having made the case for the importance of examining philosophical foundations, the chapter considers methodological challenges in using political theory. We finally turn to some central values that underlie labour law and which constitute the themes of this book — freedom, dignity, and human rights; distributive justice and exploitation; workplace democracy and self-determination; social inclusion — and summarise the chapters of the book.
Disciplines
Labor and Employment Law | Law
Recommended Citation
Hugh Collins, Gillian L. Lester & Virginia Mantouvalou,
Introduction: Does Labour Law Need Philosophical Foundations?,
Philosophical Foundations of Labour Law, Hugh Collins, Gillian Lester & Virginia Mantouvalou (Eds.), Oxford University Press
(2018).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/2534