Profile
Nicola Countouris joined the Faculty in 2009 and was promoted to Reader in 2012. Before joining UCL he had taught law at the Universities of Reading, Oxford, and at LSE. He obtained his DPhil at the University of Oxford in 2004 under the supervision of Professor Mark Freedland, and holds an MSc in European Social Policy from LSE and a Magister Juris in European and Comparative Law (Clifford Chance Prize 2001) from the University of Oxford. He has acted as a consultant for the International Labour Office and the European Commission and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Bologna, Italy, and at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain. He is one of the co-directors of the Centre for Law and Governance in Europe and a co-ordinator and founding member of UCL’s Labour Rights Institute.
He is also a contributing editor for the International Labour Law Reports series, an editor for the Italian journal Giornale di Diritto del Lavoro e di Relazioni Industriali, a co-coordinator of the ILERA study group on Labour Law and Industrial Relations, and a founding and steering committee member of the recently established international ‘Labour Law Research Network’.
Research
Nicola's main research interests are in Labour Law, Social Security Law, EU Law, and Constitutional and Administrative Law. He is currently working on a number of projects ranging from the impact of the ongoing economic crisis on (European and UK) labour and social law, to the conceptualisation of personal work relations in consumer societies, to the role of G. A. Cohen’s work in the analysis of labour relations. He is also involved in a EU funded project on the personal scope of application of EU sex equality directives, and is currently editing a book on ‘Resocializing Europe in a Time of Crisis’ (with Mark Freedland).
Publications Books
M. Freedland and N. Kountouris, The Legal Construction of Personal Work Relations (OUP, Oxford, 2011)
P. Craig, M. Freedland, C. Jacqueson, N. Kountouris Public Employment Services and European Law (OUP, Oxford, 2007)
N. Countouris, The Changing Law of the Employment Relationship: Comparative Analyses in the European Context (Ashgate, Aldershot, 2007). Reviewed by G. Davidov in (2008) Int. J. of Law in Context, 287-290
Edited Books
D. Ashiagbord, N. Countouris, I. Lianos (eds), The EU after Lisbon (CUP, Cambridge, 2012) (forthcoming)
Chapters in Books
M. Freedland and N. Kountouris, ‘The Legal Characterization of Personal Work Relations and the Idea of Labour Law’, in G. Davidov and B. Langille (eds), The Idea of Labour Law (OUP, Oxford, 2011), 190
N. Countouris, 'The Employment Relationship – A Comparative Analysis of National Judicial Approaches', in G. Casale (ed) The employment relationship: A collection of essays (ILO, Geneva, 2011)
N. Countouris, 'La Corte di Giustizia e il Vaso di Pandora del Diritto Sindacale Europeo – Un Punto di Vista Britannico' in A. Vimercati (ed.), Libertà economiche e autonomia collettiva: un conflitto sbilanciato? (Cacucci, Bari, 2009)
M. Freedland and N. Kountouris 'The Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Work and Pensions - The Institutional Face at Ministerial Level – or 'Not the Department of Employment'' in L Dickens and A Neal (eds) The Changing Face of British Employment Relations (Kluwer, The Hague, 2006)
Reports
N. Countouris and M. Freedland, The Personal Scope of the EU Sex Equality Directives (2012, forthcoming). A report produced for the European Commission by the European Network of Legal Experts in the Field of Gender Equality.
Journals
N. Kountouris, ‘The Legal Determinants of Rrecariousness in Personal Work Relations – A European Perspective’ (2012), Comp. Labor Law and Policy Journal, 101
N. Countouris, ‘Remoulding the Scope of Application of Anti-discrimination Law’ (2012), CLJ, 47 (Case note).
M. Freedland and N. Kountouris, ‘Employment Equality and Personal Work Relations – a critique of Jivraj v Hashwani’ (2012), ILJ, forthcoming
N. Countouris and M. Freedland, ‘Injunctions, Cyanamid, and the Corrosion of the Right to Strike in the UK’ (2011), European Labour Law Journal, 489
N. Countouris, 'European Social Law as an Autonomous Legal Discipline' (2010), Yearbook of European Law 2009 (forthcoming).
N. Countouris and R. Horton, 'The Temporary Agency Work Directive: Another Broken Promise?' (2009), ILJ, 329
M. Freedland and N. Kountouris, 'Towards a Comparative Theory of the Contractual Construction of Personal Work Relations in Europe', (2008), ILJ, 49-74 (also published in German as M Freedland and N Kountouris, 'Eine vergleichende Theorie über die vertragliche Konstruktion persönlicher Arbeitsbeziehungen in Europa', ZESAR Heft 5/6 2008, 209-221)
M. Freedland e N. Countouris, 'Politiche del mercato del lavoro e diritti e doveri in Europa', (2005), Giornale di Diritto del Lavoro e Relazioni Industriali, 577-613
Major Conference Papers
September 2012, Bristol, SLS Conference, ‘Labour Law and the Rise of the Consumer – From the “Binary Divide” to the New “False Quadrilemma’ (advanced draft)
July 2012, Philadelphia, ILERA World Congress 2012, ‘‘Labour Law and the Rise of the Consumer – From the “Binary Divide” to the New “False Quadrilemma’ (early draft).
November 2011, SOAS LLLdg, ‘Employee status and the scope of application of equality law after Jivraj v Hashwani (Supreme Court)’ (with Mark-Freedland)
June 2011, Stockholm, ‘UK labour and social legislation during the current economic recession’
May 2011, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, ‘The Legal Determinants of Precariousness in Personal Work Relations – a European perspective’ (paper to be published in 2012)
May 2009, King's College London, 'Contractual Structure and Termination of Personal Work Contracts in European Law' (co-presented with Mark Freedland)
February 2009, University of Cambridge, 'Good Faith and Fair Dealing in Personal Work Contracts' (co-presented with Mark Freedland)
October 2008, University of Cyprus, ' Harmonisation in Practice: the Case of European Social and Labour Law'
June 2008, University of Bari, 'The ECJ and the Pandora's Box of European Collective Labour Law – A British Viewpoint'
July 2007, University of Beijing, 'The status of professionals in European Law' (co-presented with Mark Freedland)
May 2007, University of Bologna, 'The Regulation of Fixed-term Work in the United Kingdom'
March 2007, University of Cambridge, 'Flexibility, Security & Personal Work Arrangements: Beyond the Contract of Employment: The Case of the UK' (co-presented with Mark Freedland)
Jan 2007, LSE (London), 'EU Commission Green Paper 'Modernising labour law to meet the challenges of the 21st century' – Analysis of Subsection 4.b and replies to questions 7 and 8 of the Green Paper Questionnaire'
Current Teaching
Undergraduate
Employment Law
EU Law
Public Law I
Graduate
European Employment and Equality Law
International Labour Rights in the Global Economy
Ph.D Supervision
Nicola Countouris welcomes approaches for supervision from prospective PhD students.
This page last modified
1 October, 2012
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