UCL FACULTY OF LAWS

UCL Laws Semester in London

Where modules run over two terms as a 30 credit module, SIL students will attend and be assessed on the contents of term 1. Please note that some modules reflect this with an additional "A" in their module code, but this is not the case for all of them due to special assessment arrangements for SIL students.
All assessments are graded on a pass/fail basis.

EUROPEAN LABOUR RIGHTS IN AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT (LAWSG119)
Credit value: 30 credits (12 ECTS)
Module Convenor:
Dr Nicola Countouris 		Other Teachers:
Mr Colm O’Cinneide
Professor Keith Ewing, King’s College London (KCL)
Intercollegiate teaching: Yes, this module is jointly taught with King's College London
Teaching Method: 20 x two-hour seminars
Who may enrol: LLM students, SIL students
Prerequisites: None
Barred module combinations: None
Core module for specialism: European Union Law, Public Law
Assessment
Practice Assessment: Practice exam in term 2
Assessment method for LLM students: three-hour unseen written examination
Assessment method for SIL students: 3,000 word coursework essay
Module Overview

Module summary

To what extent are labour standards regulated and set at a supranational level? Should they be? What is the role of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in setting these standards? What about other international and regional organisations, such as the Council of Europe? Should the European Union (EU) be able to prevent Member States lowering their social standards in the search to attract enterprise and investment? Do differences in labour laws across Member States prevent free movement or lead to distortions of competition? Is 'equality' respected in the EU as a free standing right, or merely as instrumental to market integration? What are the terms of the relationship between these international sources of regulation, and between them and the various national legal systems?

This module provides students with a critical understanding of the questions raised by the EU's evolving social dimension, focusing on the regional, supranational, and international regulation of social and equality rights and their interaction with national levels of social regulation. Students will be introduced not only to the core areas, and regulatory techniques, of ILO, CoE, and EU labour and equality law and policy, but also to a number of important 'flanking' policies (e.g. aspects of EU competition law and the four fundamental freedoms, immigration law) and, where relevant, to comparative perspectives on selected national legal systems. The module will also explore the interaction between collective labour rights and internal trade, as well as the interinstitutional discourse developing between the EU/European Court of Justice, the Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights/Committee of Social Rights, and the ILO/Committee of Experts in the area of social and labour rights.

Module syllabus

  1. Supranational sources of labour regulation. ‘Legal pluralism’, ‘Constitutionalism’ and ‘Judicial Dialogues’
  2. The ILO and its Core Instruments – An Introduction
  3. The Fundamental Rights Discourse – Council of Europe Instruments and Mechanisms – the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
  4. The Evolution of EU Social and Labour Law
  5. Regulating the ‘European Labour Market’ – Free movement of workers and personal service providers
  6. Alternative models of regulation: The interaction between ‘employment rights’ and ‘employment policy’ – De-regulation through ‘bail-outs’
  7. Regulating ‘Non-standard’ Work – European and Supranational Perspectives
  8. Fair and Just Working Conditions – Working Time and Pay
  9. Job Security – Rights in the Context of Economic Restructuring
  10. Job Security – Rights in the Context of Transfer of Undertakings
  11. Equality: Concepts
  12. Equality: Direct and indirect discrimination
  13. Equality: The ‘New Grounds’
  14. Equality: Substantive equality and Family friendly provisions
  15. Equality: Pay and pensions
  16. Labour and trade: The Posting of Workers
  17. An incipient collective dimension: Freedom of Association, Collective Bargaining, and the Right to Strike
  18. An incipient collective dimension: Freedom of Association, Collective Bargaining, and the Right to Strike
  19. EU regulation of worker involvement: Rights to information and consultation and ‘Eurocorporatism’.
  20. Labour rights in time of Austerity and the future of European Labour Law.

Recommended materials

• Anne Davies, EU Labour Law, Edward Elgar, 2012
or
• Brian Bercusson, European Labour Law, 2nd ed, CUP, 2009
or
• Catherine Barnard, EC Employment Law, 3rd ed, OUP, 2006

Preliminary reading

to be confirmed

Other information: N/A

Prizes for this module: Yes

A discretionary prize in the form of an internship at the International Labour Office may be available, from time to time, for the top UCL/KCL student