Philosophical foundations of labour law

By permission of the People’s History Museum

This two-day conference on the philosophical foundations of labour law brings together leading labour law scholars from around the world to explore the broad themes of:

• Equality
• Dignity
• Exploitation
• Domination
• Liberty

Key questions

Some of the key questions that the conference will address are:

• What is the nature of freedom in the workplace? If a person promises, in return for wages, to become for a period of time each day or each week the unquestioning instrument of another, an employer or master, is such arrangement compatible with the ideals of freedom that liberal societies profess or with the principle of equal respect for all citizens?
• What is the role of the value of equality in conflicts between the employer and workers, between groups of workers themselves and between workers and the unemployed? What approach does equality require in the regulation of the labour market?
• What do we mean when we refer to the value of dignity at work? Does this entail the idea of non-exploitation of workers by the employer, for example? And how should exploitation be interpreted?
• What is the value of debates on the human rights of workers? Can workers waive their human rights through an employment contract? How about their social rights, such as a right to a minimum wage? Should human rights ever (or always?) trump efficiency interests?
• What are the demands of theories of justice at work? What legal rules does social justice require?

The conference has been convened by Dr Virginia Mantouvalou (UCL), Professor Hugh Collins (Oxford) and Professor Gillian Lester (Columbia Law School).

About the conference

Labour law, at its most broadly conceived, consists of legal measures designed to regulate, either directly or indirectly, the arrangements under which people work to make a living. Labour law encompasses all forms of paid labour, though arguably this boundary can be expanded to include forms of unpaid labour, such as working in the home or family business, voluntary work, and relations akin to slavery. Labour law is therefore of great practical importance, because its rules affect almost every adult person when they are working.

Although the subject of labour law has been recognised in most legal systems as a distinct branch of legal knowledge and expertise for about a century, the foundations and justifications for the subject have always been contested. The controversy is as fierce today as it has ever been as a result of the strength of neo-liberal economic opinions that question the wisdom of and the justification for any mandatory or coercive regulation of the labour market. Neo-liberal critics argue that wealth maximisation and competitive advantage, which benefit everyone, are sacrificed by labour law regulation for the sake of confused or uncertain ideas such as fairness, equality, or social justice. This controversy between progressive labour lawyers and neo-liberal critics can be conducted at the level of instrumental policy questions, such as the debate about whether a minimum wage leads to higher or lower levels of unemployment and leads to improved or worse standards of living for the working poor. Sometimes the disputes delve more deeply into questions that can be regarded more properly as issues for moral, political, and analytical philosophy.

Some key issues that our conference will address are:

• What is the nature of freedom in the workplace? If a person promises, in return for wages, to become for a period of time each day or each week the unquestioning instrument of another, an employer or master, is such arrangement compatible with the ideals of freedom that liberal societies profess or with the principle of equal respect for all citizens?
• What is the role of the value of equality in conflicts between the employer and workers, between groups of workers themselves and between workers and the unemployed? What approach does equality require in the regulation of the labour market?
• What do we mean when we refer to the value of dignity at work? Does this entail the idea of non-exploitation of workers by the employer, for example? And how should exploitation be interpreted?
• What is the value of debates on the human rights of workers? Can workers waive their human rights through an employment contract? How about their social rights, such as a right to a minimum wage? Should human rights ever (or always?) trump efficiency interests?
• What are the demands of theories of justice at work? What legal rules does social justice require?

At their core, these philosophical questions concern the compatibility of the contract of employment with ideals of freedom or autonomy, or with respect for the equal dignity of all persons, or with not treating people as means or as commodities, but as ends, as human beings who are worthy of respect in themselves. The relation of subordination that is inherent in the contract of employment appears to establish patterns of domination, not liberty and equality.

Moreover, as most people earn their living through work and have no other significant sources of income, labour law has always been connected to broad questions about social justice. Fair wages for all has always been an ambition for labour law, though this ambition might be achieved in many different ways, from mandatory minimum wages to the promotion of collective bargaining between trade unions and employers. But are labour contracts always or often exploitative without such legal measures? If rates of wages are set by ordinary market forces in a competitive market, how can they be impugned as unfair or exploitative or in some other way unjust? Philosophical theories about the effect of coercive forces at play in labour markets and ideas of inequality of bargaining power and exploitation in employment relations can contribute significantly to an exploration of the cardinal idea of social justice and reflections on the importance of social and economic rights.

An exploration of the philosophical foundations of labour law will certainly not resolve all the problems that the subject needs to address. Even once the values and goals of labour law are more clearly and firmly articulated through philosophical analysis, there will remain many questions about how to implement effective laws as a practical matter and how to avoid undesirable side-effects such as raising levels of unemployment. Even so, a sharper, more analytical, appreciation of the aims and justifications for labour law should help to focus the subject on its priorities and thus shape the development of the law in the long run.

The programme

THURSDAY 16th JUNE – DAY ONE

9.30 Coffee and Registration

10.00 Welcome and Opening Remarks

Professor Dame Hazel Genn DBE QC (Dean, UCL Laws)

Professor Gillian Lester (co-organiser, Dean and the Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, New York)

Professor Harry Arthurs, (Emeritus Professor of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto)

Session 1. 10.30 – 12.30 Dignity
Chair: Professor Lizzie Barmes (QMUL)

Professor John Gardner (Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Oxford): ‘Bread and Roses’

11:15 Break

11:30 Session 1. Continues

Professor Hugh Collins (co-organiser, Vinerian Professor of English Law, Oxford): ‘Labour is not an Instrument’

Professor Pablo Gilabert (Associate Professor of Philosophy, Concordia University): ‘Dignity at Work’

Lunch 13:00 – 14:00

Session 2.  14:00 – 16:00 Equality
Chair: Professor Colm O’Cinneide (UCL Laws)

Professor Joanne Conaghan (Professor of Law and Head of School, Bristol University): ‘Gendered Foundations of Labour Law’

Professor Guy Davidov (Elias Lieberman Chair in Labour Law, Hebrew University, Israel): ‘Distributive Justice and Labour Law’

Professor Noah Zatz,  (Professor of Law, UCLA):“Is Antidiscrimination Law Part of Labour Law, or Vice Versa?”

16:00 Tea

16:30 Session 3. Liberty
Chair: Professor Cecile Laborde (UCL)

Professor Brian Langille (Professor of Law, University of Toronto): ‘Positive and Negative Labour Law Theory’

Dr Stephen Nayak-Young (Fellow in Law and Philosophy, UCLA): ‘Workplace Authority: Legitimate or De Facto?’

Professor Michael Fischl (Professor of Law, University of Connecticut): “A Common Law for Labor Relations (Redux).”

Reception and Conference Dinner:  University College, London

FRIDAY 17 JUNE – DAY TWO

09:00 -11:00 Session 4. Exploitation
Chair: Professor Nicola Countouris (UCL Laws)

Dr Virginia Mantouvalou (co-organiser; Reader in Human Rights and Labour Law,  UCL): ‘Exploitation and Workers’ Rights’

Professor Jonathan Wolff (Professor of Philosophy and Dean of Faculty of Arts and Humanities, UCL): ‘Exploitation’

Professor Horacio Spector (Professor of Law, University of San Diego): ‘A Risk Theory of Exploitation and Labour Law’

11 am-11.30 am coffee break

Session 5. 11.30- 1.15 pm Social Inclusion/Exclusion
Chair: Professor Mark Freedland (Oxford / UCL)

Dr Einat Albin, (Lecturer in Law, Academic Director of the Clinical Legal Programs, Hebrew University, Israel) ‘Lost in Labour Law History: The Service-Based Model for Social Inclusion’

David Cabrelli (University of Edinburgh): ‘Civic Republican Political Theory and Labour Law’
(Co-authored with Dr Rebecca Zahn, University of Strathclyde)

Sabine Tsuruda (UCLA, Department of Philosophy): ‘Volunteer Work’ 

Lunch 1.15pm-2.15pm

Session 6. 2.15pm – 4.15pm Democracy
Chair: Professor Anne Davies (Oxford)

Professor Mark Barenberg (Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law; Co-Director, Program on Labor Law and Policy, Columbia Law School, New York): ‘Labour Law and Democratic Theory’

Professor Alan Bogg (Professor of Labour Law, Oxford) and Professor Cynthia Estlund (Catherine A. Rein Professor of Law, NYU Law School): ‘Normative Foundations of the Right to Strike & Implications for its Scope in International “Fundamental” Legal Instruments’

Dr Martin O’Neill (Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of York) and Professor Stuart White (Associate Professor of Politics, Tutorial Fellow in Politics, Oxford): ‘Trade Unions and Liberalism’

4.15-4.30pm Closing Remarks and Next Steps: Conference Organisers

Registration fees and booking

Standard Ticket, with Dinner = £120
Standard Ticket, no Dinner = £80

There is no charge to attend if you are a UCL member of staff or a UCL student. Please contact lisa.penfold@ucl.ac.uk