UCL Labour Rights Institute

For the purposes of the LRI, ‘labour law’ is broadly defined as including individual and collective labour law, and anti-discrimination and equality law, at a domestic, European, international, and comparative level.

Labour market regulation and issues of labour migration also fall within the Institute’s core areas of interest and work, and the Institute has a distinct vocation for comparative and European/supranational analytical and critical studies.

Activities

The LRI seeks to achieve these objectives in a number of ways: chiefly by organising conferences, seminars and lectures on labour law subjects, establishing interdisciplinary links with other UCL Institutes and Centres, and building networks of contacts with government departments, international organizations, the social partners, and institutions and groups working in the area of labour law.

The Institute also encourages co-operative work with other universities with special interests in labour law subjects with a view to developing programmes of visits, staff exchanges, and collaborative research.

Research streams

Our work is organised on the basis of ‘research streams’. We currently have five ongoing streams:

Migrations Stream – coordinated by Dr Ingrid Boccardi
Work Relations Stream – coordinated Professor Nicola Countouris
Collective Rights - coordinated by Professor John Hendy QC
Human Rights Stream - coordinated by Dr Virginia Mantouvalou
Equality Stream – coordinated by Dr Colm O’Cinneide

Labour law as an academic subject can rely on a long and proud tradition here at UCL. Roger Rideout was one of the pioneers in the development of labour law as an academic subject, and its progressive ‘emancipation’ from other disciplines such as industrial relations and, to some extent, contract law.

Labour law has always been taught, under various denominations, as a successful undergraduate and, more recently, postgraduate course, and our Faculty members are actively involved in a number of important national and international forums and institutions dedicated to the study of labour law and the development of employment rights.