research paper writing in contemporary issues in labour law

Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law

The Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law ("BJELL") is the leading law review for employment and labor law scholarship. BJELL articles address a range of legal issues of interest to both scholars and practitioners. Topics include employment discrimination, labor law, public sector employment, employee benefits, and workforce participation. The Journal, published twice a year, includes scholarly articles, student-authored comments and case notes, book reviews, and topical essays.

BJELL’s mission is to provide a forum for academics and practitioners to discuss emerging developments in the field. In addition, BJELL is committed to helping students connect with attorneys working in the employment and labor fields.

For more information about Workers' Rights law and how to chart a career in this area at Berkeley, check out BJELL's Workers' Rights Guide .

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TOPIC-Contemporary Issues on Labour Law Reform in India SUBMITTED BY- ANSHIKA SRIVASTAVA

No matter labour legal guidelines been widely studied for almost a decade and numerous suggestions to re-invent/evolve labour legal guidelines in the contemporary leg of globalization, the troubles pertaining to welfare of labour and flexibility of the firms to grow in sync with marketplace conditions for higher industrial family members, persists even today. For the beyond six to seven years it's been argued (particularly by using employers) that labour laws in India are excessively pro-employee in the organized sector and this has caused severe rigidities that has led to adverse outcomes in terms of overall performance of this area in addition to the operation of the labour markets. There had been hints by using the authorities to reform labour laws in India through highlighting the need for flexibility in Indian labour laws that could deliver suitable flexibility to the enterprise that is crucial to compete in global markets. however the mind-set has specially been toward talent enhancement and recognition on bendy labour markets rather than evaluation of right enforcement of the laws, evaluation of the scenario of different categories of employers and coverage of the social protection machine. This paper makes an attempt to present a top level view of existing literature relating this issue and brings forth a few principal worries that need to want attention before any change framing of labour legal guidelines.

Related Papers

Labour Law and Worker Protection in Developing Countries

Kamala Sankaran

Jayati Ghosh

Modern Lanka Studies

Ramindu Perera

South Asian nations in the past three decades have entered into a process of liberalisation and deregulation of the economy. This shift in the economy from a social democratic welfare state model to a market oriented neo-liberal model has also had an impact on the legal framework and state policy governing the social relations within the economy between labour and capital. This paperexamines the changes in the legal framework and state policies in India and Sri Lanka on labour to demonstrate that the pro-labour legal framework that was in place during the pre-liberalisation period is now rapidly and aggressive being replaced by an antilabour, pro-capital legal regime. Reforms to legal regime, proposed and successfully enacted, in both countries during the post liberalisation period are extensively detailed. The interventionist state's role in the previous welfare state era as the protector of the interests of labour within an import substitution economy, has been replaced by a minimal state that is aggressively siding with the interests of the capitalists within an export oriented globalized economy.

CATO Institute, Friedrich Naumann Stiftung

Laveesh Bhandari

Sankhanath Bandyopadhyay

The paper though criticizes the current labour policy of the NDA government, the broader objective of the paper is to draw inference from international experiences and also in India’s context to provide some guidelines of what should ideally be a labour policy in developing a country like India.

Saumyajit Bhattacharya

Sakti Golder

dulli agrawal

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Labour law and human rights: legal and philosophical perspectives

There is a widespread belief that labour law is amid a protracted existential crisis, in part caused by uncertainty over the discipline’s justification and normative foundations. Against this background, the purpose of this thesis is to examine human rights as potential foundations for labour law and deepen our understanding of the relationship between labour law and human rights. It argues that human rights are an important justificatory idea for labour law and provide a normative benchmark and moral standard that can be used to evaluate existing legal frameworks and guide reforms. In developing this claim, the thesis first identifies a ‘normative gap’ in labour law’s traditional justificatory narrative, which is rooted in the idea of counteracting employees’ unequal bargaining power, and suggests that a pluralistic approach be pursued to filling this normative gap. It then argues that a normative and philosophical approach must be adopted to fully understand the relationship between human rights and labour law, with a specific philosophical conception of human rights being adopted as the basis for the analysis. A theory of human rights is then set out and used to identify the normative implications of human rights for labour law. Under this theory, workers’ human rights must be legally protected against employer infringements, and legal frameworks must be established to secure decent working conditions for all, as well as mechanisms that enable workers to exercise voice and make themselves heard. Finally, the thesis demonstrates how human rights theory can be operationalised to assess existing labour law rules, by scrutinising the reforms introduced by the Trade Union Act 2016 from philosophical and legal human rights perspectives. In sum, the thesis demonstrates that human rights are an important foundational perspective for labour law and can provide a philosophical framework to address pressing issues facing the discipline.

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Labor Law Research Paper Topics

In this comprehensive guide on labor law research paper topics , we aim to assist law students in exploring the diverse and dynamic landscape of labor law research. As the field of labor law encompasses a wide array of topics, this page offers a valuable resource for students seeking inspiration and guidance for their research papers. Students will gain insights into how to select appropriate research paper topics, tips for writing an effective labor law research paper, and the benefits of availing iResearchNet’s custom writing services. By empowering students with essential knowledge and professional support, we aim to enhance the quality and depth of labor law research in the academic community.

100 Labor Law Research Paper Topics

Welcome to the world of labor law research paper topics, where the intricate tapestry of employment relationships and workers’ rights is unraveled and explored. Labor law stands at the intersection of law, economics, and social justice, encompassing a myriad of legal principles and regulations that govern the dynamic interactions between employers and employees. As students of law embarking on a journey into this fascinating realm, you are presented with a treasure trove of research opportunities. This comprehensive list of labor law research paper topics is designed to guide you through a diverse array of subjects, providing insights into the ever-changing landscape of labor relations and shedding light on the pressing issues faced by the modern workforce. By delving into these topics, you have the chance to contribute to the advancement of labor rights, shape policy reforms, and foster a more equitable and inclusive labor environment.

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• Analyzing the Role of Labor Unions in Protecting Workers’ Rights
• The Impact of Anti-Discrimination Laws on Workplace Equality
• Addressing Gender Pay Gap through Labor Legislation
• Disability Rights in the Workplace: Challenges and Solutions
• Racial and Ethnic Discrimination in Hiring Practices: A Legal Perspective
• Promoting LGBTQ+ Inclusivity in the Workplace: Legal Frameworks and Challenges
• Age Discrimination in Employment: Legal Implications and Protections
• Examining Religious Accommodation Laws in the Workplace
• Combating Workplace Harassment: Legal Measures and Best Practices
• Legal Remedies for Unfair Dismissal and Retaliation Claims
• Labor Exploitation in Global Supply Chains: Legal Perspectives
• Cross-Border Employment Contracts: Challenges and Legal Solutions
• International Labor Standards and Corporate Social Responsibility
• Free Trade Agreements and Labor Protections: Analyzing the Impact
• The Role of International Organizations in Shaping Labor Laws
• Comparative Analysis of Labor Laws in Different Countries
• The Intersection of Labor Law and International Human Rights Law
• Global Mobility of Labor and its Legal Implications
• Protecting Migrant Workers: International Legal Frameworks
• Challenges of Enforcing Labor Standards in Globalized Economies
• The Gig Economy and the Future of Labor Law
• Labor Law in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Automation
• Data Privacy and Employee Monitoring: Balancing Rights and Interests
• Legal Considerations for Remote Work Arrangements
• Digital Labor Platforms and Worker Classification: Legal Issues
• The Right to Disconnect: Exploring Legal Protections for Work-Life Balance
• Virtual Workplaces and Cross-Border Labor Law Challenges
• Regulating Crowdsourced Labor: Legal Implications and Innovations
• Blockchain Technology and Smart Contracts in Labor Relations
• Online Labor Marketplaces: Labor Law Challenges and Opportunities
• The Legal Framework of Employment Contracts: Rights and Obligations
• Collective Bargaining and Employment Contract Negotiations
• The Role of Employment Contracts in Protecting Intellectual Property
• Non-Compete Agreements: Enforceability and Limitations
• Zero-Hour Contracts: Legal and Ethical Considerations
• Fixed-Term Employment Contracts: Benefits and Challenges
• The Gig Economy and Independent Contractor Agreements
• The Legal Implications of Employee Handbooks and Policies
• Employment Termination Clauses: Legal Safeguards and Consequences
• Legal Protections for Whistleblowers in Employment Contracts
• Occupational Health and Safety Regulations: Compliance and Enforcement
• Legal Liability for Workplace Accidents and Injuries
• Work-Related Stress and Mental Health: Legal Duties and Rights
• Ergonomics and Workplace Design: Legal Considerations
• Workplace Substance Abuse Policies and Legal Implications
• Discrimination Based on Health Conditions: Legal Perspectives
• Safety Measures for High-Risk Occupations: Legal Frameworks
• The Right to Refuse Unsafe Work: Legal Protections and Limitations
• The Role of Labor Inspectors in Enforcing Workplace Safety
• Legal Challenges in Addressing Emerging Occupational Hazards
• Labor Market Regulations and Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis
• Labor Laws and Business Competitiveness: Balancing Interests
• Labor Unions and Wage Bargaining: Economic Implications
• Labor Law Reforms and Employment Generation: A Case Study
• The Impact of Minimum Wage Laws on the Economy and Workers
• Employment Protection Laws and Labor Market Flexibility
• Labor Market Segmentation: Legal Challenges and Policy Responses
• Labor Law and Income Inequality: Assessing the Connection
• The Role of Labor Laws in Addressing Poverty and Social Welfare
• Labor Mobility and Economic Integration: Legal Facilitation and Barriers
• Armed Conflicts and Workers’ Rights: The Role of International Law
• Protecting Civilian Workers in Conflict Zones: Legal Challenges
• Child Labor in Conflict-Affected Areas: Legal Remedies and Rehabilitation
• Labor Law and Refugee Rights: Legal Protections and Dilemmas
• Employment Rights for Victims of Human Trafficking: Legal Approaches
• The Role of International Courts and Tribunals in Enforcing Labor Rights
• Labor Law and War Crimes: Holding Perpetrators Accountable
• Gender-Based Violence and Labor Rights: Legal Responses and Redress
• The Impact of Armed Conflicts on Labor Market Dynamics
• The Role of International Humanitarian Organizations in Protecting Workers
• The Legal Framework of Employment Discrimination Laws
• Age Discrimination in Employment: Legal Protections and Challenges
• Combating Gender Discrimination in the Workplace: Legal Strategies
• The Impact of Race and Ethnicity on Hiring and Promotion: Legal Implications
• Legal Protections for LGBTQ+ Employees: Advancements and Gaps
• Addressing Religious Discrimination in Employment: Legal Rights and Accommodations
• Disability Discrimination in the Workplace: Legal Remedies and Reasonable Accommodations
• Pregnancy Discrimination in Employment: Legal Safeguards and Enforcement
• Intersectionality and Employment Discrimination: Analyzing Multiple Identities
• The Role of Affirmative Action in Promoting Workplace Diversity: Legal Debates
• Artificial Intelligence in Labor Relations: Legal Implications and Ethical Concerns
• Gig Workers and Employee Classification: Legal Challenges and Protections
• Data Privacy and Labor Law: Balancing Employee Rights and Employer Interests
• Remote Work and Digital Nomads: Adapting Labor Law to Modern Trends
• The Future of Work and Labor Law: Preparing for Technological Advancements
• Freelancers and the Gig Economy: Legal Protections and Vulnerabilities
• Labor Law in the Era of COVID-19: Responses and Policy Considerations
• Labor Rights for Platform Workers: Legal Frameworks and Enforcement
• Climate Change and Labor Law: Environmental Responsibilities and Employment
• The Role of Labor Law in Addressing Income Inequality and Social Justice
• A Comparative Analysis of Labor Law Systems in Different Countries
• Labor Law Reforms and Social Movements: Global Experiences
• International Labor Standards and Conventions: Challenges and Implementation
• The Influence of International Trade Agreements on Labor Laws
• Human Rights and Labor Rights: Synergies and Conflicts
• Employment Protection and Flexibility: Comparative Policy Approaches
• The Role of Labor Unions in Shaping Labor Laws: Global Perspectives
• Enforcement Mechanisms of Labor Laws: Lessons from Various Jurisdictions
• Labor Law and Cross-Border Employment: Legal Complexities and Solutions

Exploring the Range of Labor Law Topics

The field of labor law offers an expansive and dynamic landscape that addresses various aspects of employment relationships, worker rights, and workplace regulations. As students delve into labor law research, they encounter a plethora of thought-provoking topics that delve into the intricacies of modern labor practices. This section explores the wide-ranging research paper topics in labor law, providing insights into the complex issues that shape the modern workforce and society at large.

• Labor Unions and Collective Bargaining: Labor unions play a vital role in representing workers’ interests, negotiating collective bargaining agreements, and advocating for improved working conditions. Research topics may encompass the history of labor unions, the impact of collective bargaining on wages and benefits, the challenges faced by unions in the contemporary economy, and the evolving role of unions in shaping labor policy.
• Employment Discrimination: Issues of employment discrimination based on race, gender, age, religion, or disability continue to be significant concerns in labor law. Research topics may explore the legal framework for combating discrimination, the effectiveness of anti-discrimination measures, and the role of employers in promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
• Workplace Health and Safety: Ensuring a safe and healthy work environment is a fundamental aspect of labor law. Research topics in this area may delve into occupational health and safety regulations, the impact of workplace injuries on workers and employers, and the role of employers in promoting employee well-being.
• Employee Benefits and Compensation: Employee benefits and compensation packages are critical factors in attracting and retaining a skilled workforce. Research topics may investigate the legal requirements for employee benefits, the impact of compensation structures on job satisfaction and productivity, and the role of labor law in addressing wage disparities.
• Globalization and Labor Law: The globalization of labor markets has brought about unique challenges and opportunities for labor law. Research topics in this area may explore the impact of international trade agreements on labor standards, the role of multinational corporations in shaping labor practices, and the potential for international cooperation in addressing labor rights violations.
• Employment Contracts and At-Will Employment: The legal framework governing employment contracts and the concept of at-will employment are essential considerations in labor law. Research topics may encompass the enforceability of employment contracts, the rights and obligations of both employers and employees, and the implications of at-will employment on job security.
• Whistleblower Protections: Whistleblower protections are crucial in encouraging employees to report misconduct and unethical behavior in the workplace. Research topics in this area may explore the legal safeguards for whistleblowers, the challenges they face in coming forward, and the impact of whistleblower protections on corporate accountability.
• Labor Migration and Immigration Policies: Labor migration and immigration policies intersect with labor law, as they impact the rights and treatment of migrant workers. Research topics may examine the legal framework for labor migration, the exploitation of migrant workers, and the role of labor law in protecting the rights of this vulnerable population.
• Emerging Technologies and Labor Law: Advancements in technology, such as artificial intelligence and automation, have far-reaching implications for the labor market. Research topics may investigate the legal and ethical considerations of deploying emerging technologies in the workplace, their impact on job displacement, and the need for workforce retraining and reskilling.
• Employment Regulation in the Gig Economy: The gig economy has disrupted traditional employment relationships, leading to new challenges for labor law. Research topics in this area may explore the legal classification of gig workers, their access to labor protections and benefits, and the potential for policy reforms to address gig economy challenges.

As students explore these diverse research paper topics in labor law, they gain a deeper understanding of the complex issues that underpin modern labor practices and the legal measures designed to protect workers’ rights. From promoting workplace safety to addressing employment discrimination and adapting to the changing nature of work, the study of labor law offers an opportunity to contribute to the enhancement of labor rights and the establishment of a fair and equitable labor environment.

How to Choose a Labor Law Topic

Selecting a compelling and relevant research paper topic is a crucial step in the academic journey of law students focusing on labor law. The process of choosing the right topic requires thoughtful consideration of personal interests, academic goals, and the broader societal impact of the research. This section provides valuable insights and practical tips to help students navigate the process of choosing labor law research paper topics that are engaging, meaningful, and academically rewarding.

• Identify Your Interests: Begin the topic selection process by exploring your personal interests within the field of labor law. Reflect on the topics and issues that resonate with you the most. Whether you are passionate about workers’ rights, employment discrimination, or workplace safety, aligning your research with your interests will keep you motivated throughout the writing process.
• Conduct Background Research: Before finalizing your research paper topic, conduct thorough background research on potential subjects. Familiarize yourself with the existing literature, landmark cases, and recent developments in labor law. This exploration will not only provide you with valuable context but may also inspire fresh angles and research questions.
• Stay Informed About Current Events: Keep abreast of current events and emerging trends in labor law. Issues such as the gig economy, workplace harassment, and data privacy are constantly evolving, providing excellent opportunities for timely and relevant research topics. Being aware of the latest developments in the field will help you choose topics that address contemporary challenges.
• Consider the Scope and Feasibility: Assess the scope and feasibility of potential research paper topics. Ensure that your chosen topic is neither too broad nor too narrow, as striking the right balance is essential. A topic that is too vast may lack focus, while one that is too specific may limit your ability to find sufficient research material.
• Identify Gaps in the Literature: Look for gaps in the existing literature that your research could address. Seek out topics that provide an opportunity to contribute original insights or propose innovative solutions to labor law challenges. Contributing to the advancement of knowledge in the field will make your research paper more impactful.
• Consult with Professors and Peers: Seek guidance from professors, academic advisors, and fellow students when selecting your research paper topic. They can offer valuable perspectives, suggest relevant resources, and help refine your ideas. Collaborating with others in the field fosters a deeper understanding of labor law topics.
• Brainstorm and Narrow Down Options: Engage in brainstorming sessions to generate a list of potential research paper topics. From this list, gradually narrow down your options by evaluating each topic’s merits, research potential, and alignment with your academic interests. You may also consider creating a shortlist of topics and discussing them with your professors for further feedback.
• Consider the Practical Impact: Consider the practical implications and real-world impact of your research. Labor law is intricately linked to societal well-being, economic growth, and the protection of fundamental human rights. Choosing a topic that addresses practical challenges faced by workers and employers can enhance the relevance and significance of your research.
• Be Open to Adaptation: Remain flexible and open to adapting your research paper topic as you delve deeper into the literature. As new insights and perspectives emerge, you may find it beneficial to modify your research question or approach. Embracing flexibility allows your research to evolve organically.
• Seek Personal Connection: Lastly, choose a research paper topic that resonates with your personal values and aspirations. Labor law has a profound impact on the lives of individuals and communities. Selecting a topic that aligns with your values will foster a genuine sense of purpose and dedication to producing a meaningful and impactful research paper.

By following these practical tips, law students can navigate the process of selecting labor law research paper topics that are stimulating, relevant, and contribute to the broader discourse on labor rights and societal well-being. Embrace the journey of exploring the complexities of labor law, and let your research empower positive change in the realm of employment relationships and workplace regulations.

How to Write a Labor Law Research Paper

Writing a labor law research paper can be a rewarding experience that allows law students to delve deep into the intricacies of employment relationships and the legal framework governing workplaces. To create a compelling and well-structured labor law research paper, students should follow a systematic approach that incorporates thorough research, critical analysis, and effective writing. This section offers comprehensive guidance on how to navigate the process of writing a labor law research paper, from formulating a strong thesis statement to presenting a coherent argument.

• Develop a Clear Thesis Statement: The foundation of any successful research paper lies in a clear and concise thesis statement. A thesis statement should outline the central argument or research question of your paper. In the context of labor law, your thesis may focus on a particular aspect of workers’ rights, employment discrimination, labor unions, or workplace regulations.
• Conduct In-Depth Research: Effective research is the backbone of a well-informed labor law research paper. Utilize various reputable sources, including legal databases, academic journals, government publications, and scholarly books. Analyze landmark cases, statutory provisions, and relevant international treaties to support your arguments with authoritative evidence.
• Organize Your Paper: A well-organized structure is essential for conveying your ideas coherently. Divide your labor law research paper into sections, including an introduction, literature review, methodology (if applicable), main body, and conclusion. Ensure that each section flows logically and contributes to the overall argument.
• Address the Legal Framework: Incorporate a comprehensive analysis of the relevant legal framework into your research paper. Provide an overview of labor laws, regulations, and court decisions that pertain to your chosen topic. Analyze how these legal provisions impact workers’ rights, employer responsibilities, and labor practices.
• Engage with Case Studies: Case studies can add depth and context to your labor law research paper. Select relevant case studies that exemplify the application of labor laws in real-world scenarios. Analyze the outcomes of these cases and draw connections to broader labor law principles.
• Analyze the Historical Context: Consider the historical context of labor law to understand its evolution over time. Analyze key historical events, labor movements, and legislative changes that have shaped the current labor law landscape. Understanding the historical development of labor law will provide valuable context for your research.
• Discuss International Perspectives: Explore labor law from an international perspective. Compare labor laws and practices in different countries and examine how international treaties and conventions influence domestic labor regulations. This global outlook will enrich your research and offer a broader perspective on labor rights.
• Address Ethical Considerations: Labor law often intersects with ethical considerations. Address ethical dilemmas related to labor practices, workplace discrimination, and employer responsibilities. Reflect on the ethical implications of various labor law approaches and consider the impact on stakeholders.
• Use Clear and Concise Language: Effective communication is vital for conveying complex legal concepts. Use clear and concise language throughout your labor law research paper. Avoid jargon whenever possible and define legal terms to ensure clarity for readers.
• Edit and Revise Thoroughly: Once you have completed your labor law research paper, allocate ample time for editing and revision. Review your paper for coherence, clarity, and consistency. Check for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and proper citation of sources. Consider seeking feedback from peers or professors to refine your paper further.

By following these guidelines, law students can produce an insightful and well-structured labor law research paper that contributes to the understanding of labor rights and the legal framework governing the world of work. Embrace the opportunity to engage with labor law intricacies, and let your research paper be a testament to your dedication to promoting fair and just labor practices.

iResearchNet’s Custom Research Paper Writing Services

At iResearchNet, we understand the complexities of labor law and the challenges that law students face when tasked with writing research papers on this subject. Our custom labor law research paper writing services are designed to provide students with professional assistance in crafting high-quality, well-researched papers that meet academic standards and exceed expectations. With a team of expert writers who hold advanced degrees in law and have extensive knowledge of labor law, we are committed to helping students excel in their academic pursuits and achieve their goals.

• Expert Degree-Holding Writers: One of the cornerstones of our custom labor law research paper writing services is our team of expert writers. Each writer is carefully selected based on their qualifications, experience, and expertise in labor law. Our writers hold advanced degrees in law, and many of them have practical experience in the legal field. This ensures that they have a deep understanding of labor law and are equipped to handle complex topics with confidence and precision.
• Custom Written Works: At iResearchNet, we believe in providing personalized solutions to our clients. When you order a custom labor law research paper from us, we take the time to understand your specific requirements and preferences. Our writers will work closely with you to develop a research paper that aligns with your unique needs and academic goals.
• In-Depth Research: Our writers are skilled researchers who know how to access and utilize reputable sources to gather relevant information for your labor law research paper. They have access to a wide range of legal databases, academic journals, and other authoritative sources to ensure that your paper is well-informed and backed by credible evidence.
• Custom Formatting: Our writers are well-versed in various citation styles, including APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, and Harvard. They will format your labor law research paper according to the specified style to ensure consistency and professionalism.
• Top Quality and Originality: We take pride in delivering research papers of the highest quality. Each paper is written from scratch, following your instructions and adhering to academic standards. We guarantee originality, and every paper is thoroughly checked for plagiarism before delivery.
• Customized Solutions: Our writers are dedicated to providing custom solutions tailored to your research paper requirements. We understand that each topic and assignment is unique, and we ensure that your paper reflects your understanding of labor law and your specific research objectives.
• Flexible Pricing: We understand that students may have budget constraints, which is why we offer flexible pricing options to accommodate your needs. Our pricing is competitive and transparent, with no hidden fees.
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Are you struggling to find the right labor law research paper topic or feeling overwhelmed by the complexities of the subject? Look no further! iResearchNet is here to empower you on your academic journey and provide the support you need to excel in your labor law studies. Our comprehensive range of services is designed to make the research and writing process smooth, efficient, and successful. Whether you need assistance in choosing a captivating research topic, crafting a well-structured paper, or meeting tight deadlines, we’ve got you covered.

Let iResearchNet be your trusted partner in labor law research. Our custom research paper writing services are tailored to help you succeed in your academic journey and make a lasting impact in the field of labor law. Embrace the opportunity to deepen your understanding of labor rights, workplace justice, and legal principles with the support of our expert team.

Empower your labor law research today with iResearchNet’s custom writing services. Embrace the opportunity to excel in your academic pursuits and present a labor law research paper that reflects your dedication and expertise in this essential field. Place your order now and unlock the full potential of your labor law research with iResearchNet. Together, let’s make a difference in the realm of labor law!

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14 Labor and Employment Laws

Director of the Centre for Business Research, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

• Published: 18 September 2012
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A vast amount of empirical research has been compiled on labor laws yet more is called for in view of the rapid changes occurring in this field. This article discusses the attempts to individualize the relationship, as well as make labor markets more flexible. A sociological perspective on the post-war situation viewed the industrial system as stable and self-adjusting. The article emphasizes the emergence of new data sources and methods and considers the role of theory in shaping the empirical research agenda. Labor legislations only provide the structure within which collective bargaining would occur, while abstaining from directly influencing the outcome. This article reviews the state of the art on a number of substantive issues: the law governing collective labor relations; minimum wage laws; employment protection legislation; the operation of labor courts and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms; and the relationship between labor law and corporate governance systems.

Introduction   308

Theory, Methods, and Data   310

The State of the Art on Particular Issues: Collective Labor Relations, Minimum Wages, Employment Protection Legislation, and Labor Courts   314

Collective labor relations 314

Minimum wages 317

Employment protection legislation 320

Labor courts and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms 323

Conclusions: the Prospects for Evidence-based Labor Law   326

I. Introduction

T here is a large empirical literature on labor law which is nevertheless somewhat problematic from a methodological point of view. Dickens and Hall, reviewing empirical research on the impact of the post-1997 program of labor law reform in Britain, identified over 50 relevant studies for this period alone, covering a single national system. However, they also reported “only a relatively limited amount of interdisciplinary/multi-disciplinary research bringing together academic lawyers and those trained in social science” (Dickens and Hall, 2005 : 33). Frazer 2009 : 54) suggests that academic labor lawyers are principally interested in doctrinal exposition and policy evaluation, or in “critical” analysis undertaken without direct reference to empirical methods. Perhaps more surprising is the tendency of industrial relations scholars to study “labor markets and workplace relations focusing on areas where legal regulation is intended, or could be expected, to play a role (for example employers' labor use strategies; worker representation) without actively exploring or commenting on” the role of the law (Dickens and Hall, 2005 : 33). A widely held view among labor sociologists that law is a peripheral force in industrial relations partly accounts for this. In economics, conversely, there has been a tendency to ascribe social and economic effects to labor law rules as if they were self-enforcing, without regard to the degree to which they are mediated or supplemented by workplace-level norms and practices. As a research field, labor law is contested terrain, with a multiplicity of approaches making it hard to assess empirical claims concerning the effects, or non-effects, of legal measures. Yet there is a continuous flow of new labor legislation, and a widespread belief that policy should be “evidence-based.”

The demand for empirical analysis is driven in part by the transformation that virtually all national labor law systems have undergone over the past 25 years. The post-war consensus in favor of collective bargaining based on stable union-management relations at workplace and industry level has largely disappeared. The change is often associated with “deregulation” but this term is something of a misnomer. Attempts to “individualize” employment relations and to make labor markets more “flexible” have been accompanied by the enactment of ever more voluminous and complex legislation. As trade union influence has declined, more disputes are being settled through specialized labor courts or tribunals. Minimum wage laws and employment protection legislation have filled part of the gap left by collective bargaining, while often being applied on a selective basis which adds to the law's complexity.

These changes are reflected in the issues addressed by researchers and in the methods they have been using. Labor law reforms are increasingly judged, from a policy perspective, by how far they fulfill certain economic goals, in particular increasing employment and productivity. The impact of changes in the law on firm-level practice has accordingly become a major focus of case studies and survey-based research. In addition, a sizeable quantitative literature has grown up looking at the impact of labor regulation in a comparative perspective, using measures of the extent of cross-national variation in the strength of worker protection provided by law. Section II below looks at the emergence of new data sources and methods and considers the role of theory in shaping the empirical research agenda. Section III then reviews the state of the art on a number of substantive issues: the law governing collective labor relations; minimum wage laws; employment protection legislation; the operation of labor courts and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms; and the relationship between labor law and corporate governance systems. Section IV provides an overview and conclusion.

II. Theory, Methods, and Data

Theory has played a major role in framing the questions addressed by empirical work on labor law and the types of methods used. In the predominant sociological tradition of the immediate post-war decades, the industrial relations system was seen as stable and self-adjusting. The role of labor legislation was to provide a framework within which collective bargaining could be established and maintained, but not to shape outcomes directly. This was in part a normative position, based on the perceived political importance of industrial self-regulation and autonomy from direct state control. It was also derived from a view that the socially embedded nature of workplace norms made them resistant to legal intervention. As Kahn-Freund put it (1977: 2), law “is a secondary force in human affairs, and especially in labor relations.” Empirical research in this period tended to look at industrial relations phenomena through field work and case study methods which assumed the existence of a supportive legal framework as a background condition, rather than treating the law as a variable of interest in its own right. In the British context this approach was understandable given the largely facilitative role played by labor legislation. In the United States the more interventionist legal regime of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) imposed a duty to bargain in workplaces where the union could show majority support, as well as controlling union organization to a greater extent than in the UK. When elements of the U.S. model were transplanted to the UK in the early 1970s only to meet with a mixture of union resistance and employer indifference, empirical research seemed to confirm the hypothesis, at least for the British case, of the “limits of the law” (Weekes et al., 1975 ).

This view became harder to maintain when, from the early 1980s onwards, collective bargaining systems began to fragment in all systems; but, as we shall see in more detail below (section III.A), there is no consensus among researchers on whether this was the result of more restrictive labor legislation or of factors beyond the law including high unemployment, the decline of traditional industries, and the opening-up of product markets and of the public sector to increased domestic and global competition. The perception that workplace relations were undergoing significant structural change gave rise to a new research focus on employers' labor-management strategies and an associated demand for more comprehensive data on workplace practices. The first national-level survey of workplace-level industrial relations in Britain was completed in 1984, and went on to provide a model for subsequent surveys in Britain (the most recent one, the Workplace Employment Relations Survey or “WERS,” was in 2004) and in several other countries including Australia and France. Surveys based on the WERS model have provided a new data source allowing for systematic statistical analysis at a time when the field was in any case moving in the direction of more quantitative research methods. WERS mostly provides cross-sectional data on a range of aspects of workplace relations, with a subset of the main questionnaire being used to construct a panel dataset based on repeated surveys of the same firms. Although it can be used to chart changes in management practice and union activity which might, in principle, be affected by changes in the law, it provides little information on how particular legal rules are being interpreted or applied in practice, limiting its value as an indicator of the impact of legal change. By contrast, the more recently developed Australia at Work Survey contains questions specifically addressed to managers' and workers' perceptions of how particular legal regulations are operating at workplace level, thereby providing evidence of the extent to which laws are working as intended (van Wanrooy et al., 2007 ).

The shift toward more quantitative research methods has taken place alongside the growing influence of economic approaches to the study both of industrial relations and of labor law. The neoclassical economic model takes the labor market as the focus of analysis and sees it, in a striking but apparently unconscious parallel with the traditional sociological approach, as essentially self-equilibrating. Legal rules are accordingly characterized as external or “exogenous” interferences with the otherwise smooth operation of supply and demand (Stigler, 1946 ). The normative implications of the economic approach are, of course, very different from those of the post-war industrial relations school, since collective bargaining and labor legislation alike are now seen as distortions of the market. While it is recognized that protective legislation may sometimes have a role to play in reducing transaction costs and correcting for negative externalities, the default position is that regulation induces inefficiency in resource allocation (Posner, 1984 ).

From an empirical point of view, the critical question is how far the state of the law in a given country, treated for this purpose as the independent or explanatory variable, can be shown to be linked to dependent or outcome variables in the economy, such as labor productivity, employment growth, unionization rates, and earnings inequality. From the late 1980s onwards the OECD developed indicators of the strictness of employment protection legislation which attempted to quantify these differences, and its employment protection index (“EPI”) has since become the most widely-used measure of this kind (OECD, 2004 ). The World Bank's Doing Business Reports, dating from the early 2000s, provide an alternative index which measures the costs to employers of labor law regulations relating to, among other things, the hiring process, working time controls and dismissal protection (World Bank, various years).

The World Bank indices developed out of the legal-origins hypothesis, which has been steadily reshaping empirical analysis in the law and economics field for the past decade or so, and which has implications for both theory and methods. In this approach, legal institutions, defined broadly to refer to the mechanisms for adjudication and law-making in a given country, are seen as having a long-run influence on the content of the law and hence on patterns of economic development and growth. The content of legal rules in such areas as corporate law and labor law is said to be shaped by the prevailing “regulatory styles” of the common law and civil law. The common law approach to rule-making by judges, it is claimed, tends to result in legal support for contract and property rights, whereas the civil law, with its emphasis on codes and legislation, tends to produce solutions based on the regulation of market relations (La Porta et al., 2008 ). The empirical basis for this claim consists of econometric analyses of indices which purport to capture the extent of cross-national diversity in the legal regulation of business firms. With regard to labor law, these studies show that countries with a civil law origin (those influenced by the French and German civil codes) provide, on average, a higher degree of protection for workers in respect of labor standards, termination of employment, worker representation, and the right to strike, than those with a common law origin. The same work also shows that these differences in legal regulation are reflected in higher unemployment rates and a larger informal economy in civil law countries (Botero et al., 2004 ).

Thus legal-origins theory arrives at the same conclusion as the neoclassical model: labor law regulation generally has negative economic effects. However, in contrast to the neoclassical model, the legal-origins approach does not see the labor market as self-equilibrating. On the contrary, markets are constituted and molded by legal institutions. Even if, as some argue, the legal-origins approach relies on over-stylized accounts of the differences between common law and civil law approaches to rule making (see Ahlering and Deakin, 2007 ), it has posed an important theoretical challenge to the view that the law is a marginal force in economic relations, or is simply an expression of underlying economic forces. This in turn has given rise to a growing interest in finding ways to capture the social and economic effects of legal diversity and of changes in the law over time.

Methodologically, the quantitative techniques used in the legal-origins literature mark a significant step forward, making it possible to analyze cross-national differences in business law regimes in a systematic way. The legal datasets developed by legal-origins scholars, which cover not just labor law but also aspects of corporate and insolvency law and civil procedure, have been very widely used in the comparative economics and management literature over the past decade (see La Porta et al., 2008 for a review). Critiques center on the extent to which the relevant indicators capture real or assumed costs of legal regulation, whether the coding protocols used to create the indices exhibit biases of various kinds, and how far the resulting values should be adjusted or “weighted” to reflect likely country-level variations in the relative importance of given laws and in approaches to enforcement. These arguments can be taken as implying not that the quantitative approach to legal analysis is fundamentally misconceived, but that more work needs to go into the construction of legal indices if they are to be accepted as a reliable measure of cross-national diversity in regulation (see Deakin and Sarkar, 2008 ).

The most significant limitation on the use of quantitative measures to generate findings concerning the economic impact of legal rules, in labor law as elsewhere, has been the lack of longitudinal data on legal change. Botero et al.'s study (2004) of labor regulation examined over 80 countries using an index consisting of 60 indicators, but only coded for the law as it stood in the early 2000s. A dataset such as this cannot straightforwardly be used to generate a relationship of causation between legal and economic variables. If, theoretically, it is just as plausible to believe that legal rules are shaped by national economic conditions as it is to believe that they are determining them, correlation cannot be equated with causation. This is a general problem in the econometric (and other statistical) analysis of legal and other institutions. One way to get round it is to conduct before-and-after studies of the impact of legal change, which compare the experience of the jurisdiction undergoing reform with that of another which is not, but which is otherwise comparable. This “natural experiment” technique was used to good effect in influential studies of minimum wage legislation in the mid-1990s (Card and Krueger, 1995 ; see section III.B., below).

Techniques for analyzing time series data have also developed to the point where inferences of causation can be made by comparing the impact of past (“lagged”) values of the explanatory and outcome variables on their current values. Long-time series covering several decades of data, of the kind which have recently been developed for corporate, insolvency, and labor law (Armour et al., 2009 ), open up new possibilities for analyzing the impact of changes in the law over time, but they also pose particular methodological problems. Time series such as these often display the statistical property known as “non-stationarity,” or the tendency for the series to display irregular movements over time, without returning to a stable, long-term trend. Where this is the case, false correlations can be obtained. Statistical techniques associated with the idea of “co-integration” offer ways of identifying when two non-stationary time series are linked by a common, stationary trend in such a way as to avoid spurious results, and for specifying the direction of causation from one variable to the other (Engle and Granger, 1987 ). These techniques are increasingly being used in empirical legal analysis (see, e.g., Deakin and Sarkar, 2008 ).

The growing popularity of quantitative methods, whether based on survey data or national level indicators of the state of the law, should not obscure the continuing need for qualitative work. Dickens and Hall ( 2005 ) give several reasons for thinking that case studies can provide important insights. Surveys which report evidence of employer use of a particular procedure, or which consist of the textual analysis of contracts or agreements, may not capture the extent to which given mechanisms are used in practice, or the way in which their use may be mediated by factors operating at firm level such as management style, union presence and the market environment. Qualitative work is also needed to test inferences of causation drawn from surveys of employer practice. Employers may already have been compliant with the standards set by legislation, or may have been driven to comply by extra-legal factors. Legislative change may have made the difference to the emergence of a given employer practice, or may have shaped a preexisting trend. Assessment of legislative impact, they suggest, “calls for more in-depth, qualitative work,” but such research “is time consuming, often dependent on access in areas where this may be difficult to secure, and is open to charges of being unrepresentative (not least where resource considerations constrain the scale of the research)” (Dickens and Hall, 2005 : 35). Quantitative and qualitative methods should, ideally, complement each other, but relatively few studies achieve this—a consequence, perhaps, of increasing specialization in industrial relations research and the resulting segmentation of the field.

III. The State of the Art on Particular Issues: Collective Labor Relations, Minimum Wages, Employment Protection Legislation, and Labor Courts

A. collective labor relations.

The relationship between unionization and economic outcomes including productivity and employment, on the one hand, and the legal framework for collective labor relations, on the other, has been intensively studied over the past 25 years. Freeman and Medoff's seminal analysis (1984) developed a model in which unions display a “negative” wage-monopoly side and a “positive” worker-voice side. The positive aspects of collective voice, which include increased commitment and willingness on the part of workers to invest in firm-specific human capital, were thought by Freeman and Medoff to outweigh the market distortions brought about by wage monopolization. The Freeman-Medoff model, while highly influential, is rooted in analysis of the U.S. environment, in which unions represent a small and diminishing segment of the working population (around 8% of the private-sector labor force as of 2009) and where bargaining has long been decentralized to firm or workplace level. The legal framework of the NLRA, which dates back to the New Deal of the 1930s, grants unions rights to engage in collective bargaining with employers if they can acquire certified bargaining agent status. This depends on the union gaining a significant level of worker support within the relevant bargaining unit, which will normally be at firm or workplace level. In part because of a tendency toward rigid judicial interpretation of the NLRA, its preemptive effect (ruling out state-level initiatives), and a long-running political logjam over the issue of the Act's reform, alternative forms of worker representation have failed to emerge (Estlund, 2002 ). The resulting contrast between a highly organized and legally protected unionized sector, and an unorganized sector from which unions are by-and-large excluded and in which there is no role for codetermination-style mechanisms, has shaped the empirical literature on the US case. The questions addressed by Freeman and Medoff, in focusing on the contrast between unionized and nonunionized workplaces, have less relevance in contexts where unions, either through collective bargaining or through their involvement in codetermination mechanisms such as works councils, have legally or constitutionally guaranteed representation rights across a wider range of workplaces, and where sector-level collective bargaining ensures parity of labor costs for firms in the same industry regardless of whether they bargain with unions at workplace level, as is the case in many continental European jurisdictions.

Freeman and Medoff 1984 ) coupled their analysis with a call for the revision of the NLRA to support unionization. No such revision has materialized, and the remarkable stasis of U.S. labor legislation over most of the post-war period makes it an unsuitable case study for an examination of the impact on unionization, and related outcome variables, of legal change. The UK, by contrast, has seen extreme policy shifts since the late 1970s, with a pro-union legal framework, providing support for the closed shop, collective industrial action, and sector-level collective bargaining, giving way to a more hostile environment for unions from the early 1980s onwards. Because union density and strike activity fell over the same period, it might be assumed that these trends were driven by the changes in the law, but this is not clear. Union membership levels fell in all developed countries during the 1980s, and the decline in the UK was far from being the largest. Freeman and Pelletier 1990 ) were among the first to develop an index of legal change over time, and their analysis, by comparing the UK with the closely comparable jurisdiction of Ireland, claimed to identify a negative impact on unionization levels of the British legislation. However, increased product-market competition, low inflation, and high unemployment are plausible factors in explaining not just union decline but also changes in the laws themselves, which are to some degree a function of union strength. Some econometric studies suggest that unionization is a consequence of the macroeconomic cycle rather than a major influence upon it (Disney, 1990 ).

Evidence on the interaction between legal change, declining union influence, and employers' labor-use strategies can be found in the qualitative study carried out by Brown et al. ( 1998 ). They conducted 32 case studies in UK-based companies across 11 industrial sectors at a time (1996–97) when the legal environment was at its most hostile to trade unions. Statutory “props” to sector-level collective bargaining had been removed and restrictions on solidarity strike action imposed in the 1980s, as well as a series of court rulings in the early 1990s, opened the way to employers to differentiate, from the point of view of pay and conditions, between workers covered by collective bargaining arrangements and those accepting “individualized” (that is to say, non-collectively bargained) employment contracts. Following these judgments, employers in industries with a tradition of union militancy, such as the docks and printing, withdrew from collective bargaining (union “de-recognition”), as they were entitled to do in the absence of a legal duty to bargain of the kind provided in the U.S. context by the NLRA.

The research undertaken by Brown et al. was concerned with examining employers' motives for de-recognition, the effects of de-recognition on terms and conditions of employment, and the role of unions in the resulting arrangements. They found that de-recognition was driven by growing product-market competition and shareholder pressure for financial returns, and, in the public sector, by privatization and contracting out. Case law, which opened the way to rewarding employees who gave up the protection of collective bargaining arrangements, had been a catalyst for de-recognition but was not, in employers' eyes, the main driving force. De-recognition was accompanied by the greater use of performance-related pay and by a widening of pay differentials; however, there was no evidence of individual bargaining over terms and conditions, as employers' standard form contracts simply replaced terms previously incorporated from collective agreements. These standard terms introduced flexibility into the definition of pay and hours and reserved powers to employers to change employment conditions unilaterally. There was similar evidence of the effects of “individualization” in empirical studies from Australia (Fetter and Mitchell, 2004 ) and the United States (Dau-Schmidt and Haley, 2007 ), which, however, suggest that benefits to employers of increased flexibility may be offset by increased transactions costs and legal complexity.

It is far from clear that a strategy of union exclusion was capable of delivering competitive advantage to firms. Brown et al. ( 1998 ) carried out case studies in comparable firms which had retained collective bargaining. Most of these had also introduced flexible working arrangements. Where formal recognition rights were retained, it was on the basis that unions were expected to cooperate with management in raising productivity and otherwise maintaining the competitiveness of firms. Their study reported no evidence that firms which had withdrawn from collective bargaining had achieved greater flexibility over costs than their unionized counterparts, or had otherwise gained a superior competitive position.

The Brown et al. study was commissioned by a government department; it was begun while a Conservative government was in office but was completed and published after the election of a Labour government, which was committed to restoring some, but by no means all, of the legal rights which had been eroded in the course of the 1980s and 1990s. The Fairness at Work White Paper of 1998 and the Employment Relations Act 1999 put in place the new government's agenda for promoting “partnership” between unions and employers. This included legislation providing for a statutory right to recognition for representative trade unions, modeled loosely on U.S. and Canadian practice, but it stopped short of restoring the right to take solidarity strike action, and nothing was done to revive or shore up sector-level collective bargaining. The implications of the Brown et al. study for policy were ambiguous. It could have been read as arguing for an extension of union recognition, on the ground that union involvement in the issue of work organization had positive impacts on firm-level competitiveness, as well as wider benefits. Quantitative research by some of the same authors, based on analysis of the WERS survey, showed that a strong union presence at workplace level was associated with more effective enforcement of statutory employment rights and with provision of occupational benefits by employers above legislative minima (Brown et al., 2000 ). On the other hand, the study was open to being interpreted as demonstrating that employers could realize the advantages of enhanced organizational flexibility whether they recognized unions or not. A new recognition law would not represent a “burden” to employers, but it was neither necessary nor desirable for public policy to push for the wider re-unionization of the British economy through the revival of sector-level bargaining or changes to strike law. There is evidence that this second interpretation was the one adopted by policy-makers. A review of the policy impact of social science research carried out by the UK Economic and Social Research Council found that the Brown et al. study had confirmed to civil servants and politicians that the 1999 Act could be adopted without bringing about “an increase in union militancy,” with the result that the research “confirmed a policy decision” that was taken independently (ESRC, 2007 ).

B. Minimum wages

At the start of the 1980s there was a broad consensus among economists to the effect that minimum wage legislation had the effect of causing higher unemployment, particularly among younger workers. The literature focused on the U.S. case, which had (and has) some unusual features. Federal minimum wage legislation, which dates from the 1930s, contains no automatic indexing mechanism, with the result that new legislation is required to raise the basic rate. Because of the difficulty of getting political consensus about the level of the federal rate, there have been lengthy periods when the minimum wage stagnated or fell in value in real terms, and the proportion of the workforce directly receiving the minimum rate is now very low by international standards, around 2%. By contrast, the French minimum wage, which is revised annually according to a formula that takes both wage and price inflation into account, currently covers 16% of the workforce. The U.S. literature focuses on the issue of teenage unemployment, as it was mostly teenage workers who were affected by the minimum wage in that country. Data availability has also shaped the literature; the U.S. Current Population Survey supplied a lengthy time series of data on teenage unemployment. Analysis of this source confirmed the theoretical prediction that raising the minimum rate would have negative employment effects (Brown et al., 1982 ).

As already noted, the revisionist analysis of Card and Krueger 1995 ) was based on the opportunity for comparative case studies which was provided by variations in the rates set by individual states, which have the power to legislate minimum wages above the federal level. They carried out a study of the increase in the minimum wage in New Jersey using Pennsylvania, a neighboring state in which the minimum wage had not been increased, as a control. Their analysis showed that, after taking into account the effects of the national recession which affected both states, the implementation of the higher minimum rate in New Jersey was associated with an increase in full-time employment in the fast food restaurant sector there, by comparison to Pennsylvania. The result was theoretically plausible because of assumed monopsony effects. In other words, before the minimum wage was raised, employers had used their superior bargaining power and access to information to depress wages below the competitive rate; the increase in wages triggered by the New Jersey law had increased the supply of labor into fast food employment without depressing underlying demand. In addition, a study of California found that teenage employment and earnings both rose following an increase in the minimum wage, despite high coverage and evidence of compliance by employers. Survey evidence suggested that employers in the fast food sector were unlikely to respond to increases by dismissing workers or cutting fringe benefits, supporting the idea that employers acted as monopsonists in low-wage labor markets.

These studies generated a huge literature response. The main lines of criticism were that the survey data on which they were (in part) based were not entirely reliable; that the periods over which the effects of rate increases were studied were too short; and that the control groups used in the comparative state-level case studies were not appropriate. Long-run panel data studies have tended to find negative employment effects, leading a recent overview to conclude that around two thirds of the relevant studies “give a relatively consistent (although not always statistically significant) indication of negative employment effects of minimum wages” (Neumark and Wascher, 2006 : 121).

The U.S. case, in its emphasis on the impact of minimum wage regulation on a very small segment of the working population, is not typical. The British case offers an alternative perspective. For most of the twentieth century there was no general legal minimum wage; instead, legal minimum rates could be set by statutory wage-fixing bodies (trade boards and, later, wages councils) in industries characterized by very low pay and the absence of voluntary collective bargaining. In 1986 the powers of the wages councils were cut back and in 1993 they were abolished altogether (leaving agriculture as the only sector with statutory wage fixing). Prior to the 1986 Act, it was “confidently postulated” by a leading economic critic of labor legislation that abolition would “serve to expand employment [and] offer competitive wages for the socially disadvantaged” (Minford, 1985 : 122). However, econometric research carried out in the early 1990s found that as the wage-setting powers of the wages councils were reduced, employment in the low-paying sectors directly affected by this legal change fell, suggesting that in the absence of regulation employers were able to exercise monopsony power (Dickens et al., 1993 ).

In 1998 a new British national minimum wage was enacted, which was to apply to all sectors of the economy. A tripartite Low Pay Commission (“LPC”) was given the task of recommending a minimum rate to the government. The LPC's first recommendation was for a minimum adult rate of £3.60 an hour from April 1999, a figure which represented 45% of median earnings and was estimated to affect 11% of the labor force, mostly in the cleaning, catering, and security industries, with women workers benefiting proportionately more than men. A series of special youth rates was also set. As in the United States there is no automatic indexing mechanism, but the government has accepted a series of LPC recommendations which have had the effect of raising the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum rate over time.

The LPC commissioned numerous pieces of research into the operation of the new legislation and several of its members have been economists who, along with industry representatives, have taken part in the deliberations which resulted in the setting of the recommended rate. One of the original commissioners, Metcalf, has recently reviewed the empirical evidence on the operation of the legislation (Metcalf, 2007 ). He found that there had been a positive impact on earnings, with the rate of increase in the real value of the minimum wage accelerating after 2002. The fall in the earnings of the lowest quartile which took place in the period without statutory regulation between 1993 and 1998 had been reversed, and there had been a narrowing in the gender pay gap which was attributable to the minimum wage. Wage inequality fell after 1998, having risen consistently since 1978. There was no evidence of negative employment effects in the majority of the sectors most affected (retail, hospitality, social care, cleaning, agriculture, security, clothing and footwear, and hairdressing; textiles, an industry in long-term decline, was an exception). There was no evidence of disemployment effects on particular groups including those most affected by periodic increases in rates. Metcalf's study considers reasons for the absence of negative impacts. He found evidence of redistribution (the profit-ability of firms most affected by the legislation declined) and of monopsony on the part of employers (survey evidence suggested that firms had discretion to set wages independently of supply and demand). Metcalf 2007 : 53) concludes that “the LPC, via its evidence-based approach … has raised the real and relative wage of low-paid workers without adverse employment consequences.”

The variety of forms of minimum-wage regulation makes generalization difficult. Some systems, like France, have extensive statutory wage floors set at a high level in relation to median wages, while other systems rely on a mixture of voluntary collective bargaining and legislation extending the terms of collective agreements to non-federated employers. In developing countries, the coverage of minimum wage laws is often higher than in developed ones, in part because collective bargaining mechanisms are either weak or missing. Comparative studies, such as the recent analysis of the United States and Turkey by Koçer and Visser ( 2009 ), suggest that minimum-wage forms are most likely to be related to country-level conditions, including the makeup of political coalitions, the stage of economic development, and the presence or otherwise of complementary forms of regulation. A perspective of this kind suggests a need for a more nuanced and context-sensitive approach to the study of the effects of statutory wage fixing than we have seen in most empirical studies to date.

C. Employment protection legislation

Employment protection legislation (“EPL”) is, by origin, a continental European mode of labor law regulation, and the marked difference in levels of dismissal protection, for example, between the United States and Europe has been the focus of a numerous studies. U.S. unemployment, which was higher than that in Europe in the 1960s, began to decline in the mid-1980s and carried on falling at the same time as employment growth accelerated; in Europe in the same period, unemployment remained high after the shock of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and employment growth was sluggish. Because there have been relatively few changes to the legal and institutional framework in the United States across the period from the 1960s to the present day, it is not obvious, at first sight, that regulatory factors contributed to the United States' employment performance over this period. However, because the stringency of controls over dismissal in Europe was increased (from an already high base of regulation) in the early 1980s (see Deakin et al., 2007 ), it is possible to attribute part of the failure of the European economies to match US employment growth after that point to this factor, as suggested by the OECD's influential Jobs Study (OECD, 1994 ).

However, there is theoretical indeterminacy over the effects of employment protection laws. On the one hand, stricter EPL could lead to higher unemployment as firms are deterred from hiring and there is a reduction in productivity brought about by the slowing down of flows of labor from less productive to more productive firms. On the other hand, stricter EPL could reduce unemployment levels by making it more costly for firms to dismiss workers in a downturn, while at the same time providing incentives for retraining as an alternative to redundancy, thereby improving productivity. Studies which look at the interaction of EPL with other institutional factors find that it is, at best, a weak predictor of levels of employment and unemployment (Bertola, 2009 ).

Progress is being made by studies which take into account the extent to which employment protection laws are both endogenous to particular sectoral contexts and complementary to other institutions in labor, product, and capital markets, both factors which may be expected to mediate their economic impact. EPL can plausibly be said to put into legal form a model which originated in the practice of industries with stable, bureaucratically organized employment. As a form of regulation, it is therefore likely to have more impact in industries which are characterized by the opposite types of practices, such as those with a high level of labor turnover. Recognizing this, Bassanini and Venn 2007 ) carried out an analysis of the impact of EPL in what they call “EPL-binding” industries, which they define as those with a higher propensity to dismiss workers in a downturn, and which they contrast with “non-binding” industries. They reported a negative impact of EPL on productivity. However, using the same approach, they found a positive impact of minimum wage legislation on productivity in low-paying sectors, and a similarly positive impact of parental leave laws in female-dominated industries.

A growing body of literature, using national-level data, is looking at possible complementarities between EPL and related institutional variables such as product-market regulation and corporate governance structures. Amable, Demmou, and Gatti ( 2007 ) report evidence to the effect that, in OECD countries, product-market deregulation produces higher growth only in conjunction with the preservation of a high level of EPL. This suggests that product-market regulation, rather than high EPL, may have been a cause of slow employment growth in Europe compared with the United States. Gatti 2008 finds that high levels of EPL are complementary to concentrated corporate ownership, with this conjunction leading to higher rates of growth; dispersed ownership and more liquid capital markets are positively correlated with growth in systems with low levels of EPL. The existence of links between corporate ownership structures and modes of financing, on the one hand, and employers' labor-use strategies on the other, is also suggested by case-study research (Marshall et al., 2008 ).

Analysis of the longitudinal labor-regulation index developed at the Cambridge Centre for Business Research (CBR) also finds evidence of complementarities in the operation of employment protection laws (Deakin et al., 2007 ; Armour et al., 2009 ). This index is constructed in such a way as to capture a wider range of information than the OECD and World Bank indices. Information from collective agreements and other self-regulatory mechanisms, which operate as the functional equivalents to formal laws in some systems, is included. In another departure from earlier indices, the coding protocols also allow for the individual country scores to reflect the extent to which labor laws take the form of default rules, applying unless the parties agree otherwise, as opposed to being either completely mandatory or non-applicable. Explanations for codings, providing the primary legal source in each case, are provided (this is not the case with the World Bank index and is only partially achieved in the OECD index).

The CBR index is in the form of an annual time series, going back to the early 1970s. It is currently available for five countries (France, Germany, India, the UK, and the U.S.) and covers the whole labor law field, which is broken down into five sub-indices (form of the employment contract, working time, dismissal, employee representation, and industrial action).

The picture of the law provided by the CBR index is not dissimilar to that given by the analysis of Botero et al. ( 2004 ), in that civil law systems appear to have a significantly higher degree of regulation than common law ones (see Figure 1 ). However, the case of India is an exception here. Its labor laws are broadly comparable to those of Germany rather than to its “parent” system, the UK. The time series dimension of the CBR index is also revealing. It suggests that there has been considerable change over time in the content of labor laws, particularly in relation to the treatment of flexible forms of work and to working time controls. It appears that shifts in the political and macroeconomic environment are capable of bringing about significant changes to the substance of labor law, casting doubt on the idea of stable cross-country differences derived from legal origin, and emphasizing the endogeneity of the law to local political and economic contexts (Deakin et al., 2007 ; Deakin and Sarkar, 2008 ).

Labor Regulation in Five Countries 1970–2005

Note : the vertical axis indicates aggregate country scores (the highest possible score is 40).

Deakin and Sarkar 2008 ) carried out a time series analysis of relationships in France, Germany, the UK, and the U.S. between the different components of the CBR index and employment and productivity growth, after controlling for growth of GDP. They found no evidence that the deregulatory labor market reforms carried out in the UK from the late 1970s onwards had had either a positive or negative long-run effect upon employment and productivity growth. By contrast, they found evidence of a positive impact of working time controls and dismissal protection on productivity in Germany, and a positive relationship between working time legislation and employment growth in France. The results for the United States indicate that a strengthening of dismissal laws there in the late 1980s (in the form of the federal-level Worker Advance Notification and Retraining Act (WARN) of 1988, which required employers to give notice of dismissal and make severance payments when downsizing their workforces) was associated with productivity gains, but at the expense of employment growth. A separate study using the CBR index by Acharya et al. ( 2009 ) finds evidence of a positive relationship between dismissal protection in the countries contained in the CBR dataset and innovation rates as measured by patent applications, suggesting a further channel by which EPL may be linked to productivity growth.

The WARN law does not impose legal constraints on the substance of the right to dismiss, it merely postpones the effect of dismissal and/or provides for compensation for lack of notification. There is no federal-level unfair dismissal legislation in the United States, but from the early 1980s up to the mid-1990s exceptions to the common law “employment at will” rule (by virtue of which the employer may terminate the employment relationship without just cause or even, in some instances, the giving of notice, mirroring a similar right to quit on the part of the employee) began to emerge in the case law of several states. There is some evidence that the “implied contract” exception to employment at will was associated, in this period, with higher unemployment without any countervailing productivity improvements (Autor et al., 2004 ) but this result is contingent on the way in which judicial rulings were coded for the purposes of legal index construction. An alternative coding, based on rulings which marked a shift in doctrine at the level of the appellate courts as opposed to the earliest instance of a pro-worker ruling, found no disemployment effect (Walsh and Schwarz, 1996 ). While there is a case for saying that employers may have begun to adjust their behavior at the point when adverse rulings were first announced as opposed to the later date at which a more definitive judgment was handed down, the sensitivity of the result to the coding method used is an indication of the methodological difficulties inherent in this type of work.

D. Labor courts and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms

While it is widely acknowledged that an understanding of modes of enforcement is critical to an assessment of the social and economic effects of labor legislation, and there is a substantial literature examining the operation of labor courts and other aspects of the machinery of labor law in particular countries, there are very few comparative studies. One of the most illuminating is by Blankenburg and Rogowski 1986 ), who examined the labor court systems of Britain and West Germany in the mid-1980s. Both countries have specialized courts or tribunals to deal with labor law issues, mostly individual disputes, with legally trained judges sitting with lay representatives from labor and management. When Blankenburg and Rogowski conducted their research, there were around 387,000 labor court filings each year in West Germany but only 47,000 equivalent applications in Britain. The West German courts had jurisdiction over a wider number of issues at that point, but not markedly so. Taking into account differences in overall employment levels and in the numbers of dismissals, litigation rates were six times higher in West Germany. The West German courts had seen an increase of over 40% of their caseload in the preceding decade while litigation rates in Britain had been more or less static (with even a small decline between 1981 and 1986). In Britain around two thirds of applications were settled or withdrawn before the hearing stage (the proportion is about the same today), while in West Germany fully 90% were. Of those cases that went to adjudication, employees had a 50% success rate in West Germany, and a 27% success rate in Britain.

The differences between the two countries, in terms of the importance accorded to judicial process within the industrial relations system as a whole and in the effectiveness of court mechanisms for dispute resolution, are historically rooted. The German labor court system dates back to the 1920s and developed from the outset with the active encouragement and involvement of the trade unions, and, in the post-war period, with a high degree of employer acceptance. By contrast, British employment tribunals were introduced in the mid-1960s and acquired jurisdiction over unfair dismissals only in 1971. Unions regarded them as a second-best alternative to collective bargaining and workplace- or industry-level dispute resolution, while employers tended to see them simply as a source of extra costs. The German courts are staffed by career judges with a specialized labor law training, many of whom are left-leaning or otherwise sympathetic to the overall goals of the labor law system (as indicated by high levels of membership of public-service trade unions). British tribunal chairs, on the other hand, are senior barristers or solicitors who, in the period of the Blankenburg-Rogowski study, had little or no special expertise in labor law. This has changed in the interim, as an experienced cadre of employment judges (as tribunal chairs are now called) has grown up over time. However, court procedure remains a significant point of difference. In the inquisitorial tradition of the civil law, German labor court judges have the power to intervene to direct arguments and shape the hearing to a much greater extent than their British counterparts. Under German legislation, the power to arrange conciliation is given to the labor-court judge rather than to a separate process administered by a government agency prior to the tribunal hearing, as in Britain. As a result, “the inquisitorial discretion that [the German judge] enjoys allows him to shift back and forth between mediation, arbitration and adjudication, using the letter of the law to encourage parties to settle” (Blankenburg and Rogowski, 1986 : 83). The procedures of British employment tribunals, although intended to be relatively flexible, are, by the standards of the German labor courts, highly formal and adversarial.

The workload of British employment tribunals doubled in the early 1990s to reach over 70,000 applications by 1993–4, and the late 2000s also saw another very rapid increase, so that by 2007–8 the number of filings had reached nearly 200,000, in part because of a surge in discrimination claims. The overall number of filings is still well below the equivalent German figure of nearly 600,000, in both absolute and proportionate terms, but British policy has been focused for around a decade now on the goal of reducing the number of tribunal hearings on the dual grounds of the cost to government of running the tribunal system and the “burden” to employers of litigation. A study carried out for the UK government in the early 2000s (Burgess et al., 2001 ) suggested that the rise in tribunal hearings was linked, among other things, to union decline. There was a higher number of claims from workers in smaller businesses, which did not have internal procedures or an active union presence of the kind which tended to reduce the incidence of disputes. Union involvement in dispute resolution also helped to bring about pre-hearing settlements. Union influence in workplace industrial relations continued to erode after the publication of this study, and policy-makers sought other mechanisms for reducing tribunal workload. These included the introduction of a scheme for binding arbitration at the pre-hearing stage, an extension of tribunal powers to award costs against applicants in the case of unfounded claims (the normal rule is that no costs are awarded, regardless of outcome) and, from 2004, the exclusion of claims which were not first submitted to an internal grievance or disciplinary procedure. However, the new costs rules appear to have had a minimal impact on the volume of claims and only a tiny number of cases have been resolved through binding arbitration. The procedural reforms were found to have added a new layer of cost and complexity to workplace-level procedures, and were repealed in 2008. If recent attempts to streamline the tribunal system have generally proved a failure, reliance on labor legislation in place of collective bargaining has been no more successful in delivering effective protection to applicants who do not have union support. Access to tribunals is costly for the nonunionized workforce which now represents around 70% of the total, and the availability of legal or union-based representation is an important factor in the successful resolution of claims (Pollert, 2005 ).

In the course of the past four decades or so, the British system has undergone a transition from a largely voluntary and collectively oriented system of dispute resolution to one that is more individualized and legally-structured. As early as the 1970s commentators were identifying a high level of regulatory intervention and litigation in the American system, a pattern which has persisted as part of the “legal adversarialism” which characterizes American regulatory culture (Kagan and Axelrad, 1997 : 150). The NLRB's highly judicialized approach to resolving claims concerning union organization and bargaining rights has been one of the factors contributing to the rigidity or “ossification” of U.S. labor law (Estlund, 2002 ). There is no specialized labor court system for individual disputes as there is in most western European countries, and there is a growing trend for legal claims to be resolved through employer-based arbitration systems, which can be made mandatory by agreement between employer and employee. There is a large literature on the detail of the operation of U.S. employment arbitration, which looks, among other things, at the impact on success rates of legal representation and the degree of specialization among lawyer and non-lawyer advocates (see Kritzer, 1998 : 154–5). There is some empirical research to suggest that arbitration does not result in reduced success rates or in lower levels of awards for higher-paid employees by comparison to court-based dispute resolution, and may help to ameliorate problems of access to courts for lower-paid employees (Eisenberg and Hill, 2004 ), although there is evidence that employers introduce arbitration not just in order to reduce litigation costs but as part of union-avoidance strategies (Colvin, 2003 ).

There is a small but growing literature looking at the judicial resolution of labor law disputes from a behavioral perspective. Sunstein et al. ( 2006 ) find that the political composition of NRLB panels affects voting outcomes. There is some evidence that labor courts in Italy and Germany take a more restrictive view of the lawfulness of dismissals during times of high unemployment, and that regional labor market factors and the political basis of judicial appointments also influence the strictness with which labor laws are applied by courts (Ichino et al., 2003 ; Berger and Neugart, 2006 ).

IV. Conclusions: the Prospects for Evidence-based Labor Law

This Chapter has reviewed recent developments in the empirical study of labor and employment laws. A growing interest in cross-national, comparative analysis has prompted the emergence of new data sources, in the form of indices of labor regulation, and the utilization of statistical methods which can throw light on the nature of causal influences running from the law to the economy and vice versa. Through work of this kind, a more complete account of the economic effects of labor laws is being established. The conventional view, influenced by the belief that unregulated markets were, on the whole, competitive, maintained that labor regulation was an exogenous source of inefficiencies, leading to unemployment and slowing down growth. Revisionist accounts see labor laws as having a number of complex and potentially offsetting effects. For example, minimum wage laws, if set at the appropriate level, can be used to improve the position of low-income households and reduce earnings inequality. Employment protection legislation may have positive impacts on productivity by enhancing worker commitment and innovation at firm level. The new literature stresses that the effects of labor laws cannot be predicted in an a priori way, through the use of models with universal application, but depend on the interaction of legal rules with a number of national, regional and industry-specific conditions and with complementary institutions in capital markets and product markets. This implies a need for better and more reliable data on the content of the law, on modes of operation, and on the context in which legal rules are applied. It also suggests a continuing role for case study work in examining the operation of laws at workplace level and assessing claims for causal inference drawn from the quantitative literature.

Is the upshot of this likely to be the greater use of evidence from empirical studies in the policy-making process? The prospects for evidence-based policy are, in practice, uncertain. One reason for this is that the status of the knowledge produced by empirical research remains, to some degree, contingent. Many of the questions to which policy-makers would like to have answers are not susceptible to empirical research given the current state of data resources. As we have seen, it is only recently that data have become available on legal systems in a form which can be used in cross-national comparisons. In addition, statistical analyses involve limitations and tradeoffs which may (or should) qualify any policy recommendations.

There are, however, wider constraints on evidence-based policy. Theory plays a highly significant role in shaping the policy-making process, and frames empirical research. In the immediate post-war decades the view that the industrial relations systems was largely stable, with law operating as a secondary force, limited research into the social and economic impact of legal rules. More recently, as part of a wider “deregulatory agenda,” neoclassical economic models have tended to characterize labor law rules as “distortions” in the otherwise smooth operation of markets. Only recently has there been a growth of interest in legal rules and mechanisms as a variable of interest in their own right, with the capacity to shape economic outcomes, and this has been associated with a set of theoretical claims based around the legal-origins hypothesis, which makes strong a priori assumptions about the nature of different legal systems, assumptions which lack a strong empirical grounding.

At the level of the political process, the theory of competitive labor markets informs an ideological commitment to labor market flexibility and deregulation which, while weakening, continues to influence policy-makers. As we have seen, the empirical basis for the deregulatory approach is not very strong. It is perhaps surprising then to find the international financial institutions continuing to advise national governments that, as the World Bank Doing Business report for 2008 puts it, “laws created to protect workers often hurt them” (World Bank, 2008 : 19). But this simply reflects the somewhat marginal role that empirical analysis plays in policy formation.

Instances of the use of evidence to set policy remain exceptional. The recent experience of Britain's Low Pay Commission (see section III.B., above) suggests that when empirical evidence feeds into the policy-making process, it does so only within tightly set parameters. The Labour government which was elected in 1997 had made a political commitment to the enactment of a national minimum wage. The issue which the LPC had to decide was what level to recommend. Empirical research was used to inform the deliberations of the Commission, but it did not determine the prior and far more momentous decision to introduce the national minimum wage in the first place. Similarly, research on union de-recognition carried out shortly before Labour returned to office was used to justify a cautious approach to the reform of collective labor relations law, when a more extensive restoration of union rights could equally well have been justified. To take the converse type of case, the analyses contained in the Doing Business reports have been framed by the World Bank's prior commitment to the Washington consensus formula of the minimalist state, property rights and trade liberalization as the basis for growth. However, as the Washington consensus fades, we are beginning to see the methodology of the Doing Business reports being increasingly questioned (Lee et al., 2008 ). This is a sign that amajor policy shift is taking place which may help to open up new opportunities for empirical inquiry, and ultimately for a reformulation of theory.

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Contemporary Issues in International Law

Environment, International Trade, Information Technology and Legal Education

• © 2018
• B.C. Nirmal 0 ,
• Rajnish Kumar Singh 1

National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi, India

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Faculty of Law, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India

Includes well-researched contributions and answers to technical questions pertaining to the topics covered

Presents an intelligent sense of conceptual and contextual aspects of environment, trade, information technology and legal education, in tune with certain ideas and experiences of readers and lawmakers

Highlights India’s position on varied topics of contemporary international law

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Table of contents (45 chapters)

Front matter, introduction.

• B. C. Nirmal, Rajnish Kumar Singh

Environment, Trade, Information Technology and Legal Education: Overview

• Legal Education
• Ranjana Prakash Desai

International Environment Law, Trade Law, Information Technology Law and Legal Education

• S. P. Mehrotra

Environmental Pollution and Its Control

• R. S. R. Maurya

International Environmental Law

Understanding further regulatory needs of components of agrobiodiversity and genetic resources for food and agriculture for sustainable use.

• Sudhir Kochhar

Environmental Law: Post-Rio Discussions on Environmental Protection— A Reflection

• Andrew Ejovwo Abuza

Principles of International Environmental Law: Application in National Laws of Bangladesh

• Gazi Saiful Hasan, Sheikh Ashrafur Rahaman

Technology for Climate Cha(lle)nge: Issues and Concerns

• V. Rajyalakshmi

Current Perspectives on Environmental Law

• Saligram Bhatt

Authority for Protection and Conservation of the Environment: A Judicial Invocation in India

Human right to water and national water policy-2012: emerging issues.

• Vinod Shankar Mishra

From Rio to Doha: In Search of Cooperative Action for Climate Change

• Sukanta K. Nanda

The Principle of Sustainable Development: International and National Perspectives

• Ajendra Srivastava

Globalization, International Human Rights Law and Current Economic Crisis

• B. C. Nirmal

National and International Perspectives of IPR Laws with a Focus on Some Sui Generis Options

The impact of liberalization on higher education and domestic regulation.

• Tham Siew Yean, Nik Ahmad Kamal Nik Mahmod, Rokiah Alavi
• Environment Poluution Law
• Water Policy
• Climate Change
• WTO Regulation
• Cyber Crime Law

About this book

This book explores the changing nature of international law and its ability to respond to the contemporary issues related to international environment, trade and information technology. The evolution of international law has reached a stage where we are witnessing diminishing power of the state and its capacity to deal with the economic matters challenging the existing notions of territory and sovereignty. Recent trends in international law and international relations show that states no longer have exclusive control over the decision-making process at the global level. Keeping this in mind, the book brings together the perspectives of various international and national scholars.

Editors and Affiliations

B.C. Nirmal

Rajnish Kumar Singh

About the editors

Rajnish Kumar Singh , Assistant Professor of Law at the Law School, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, obtained his LL.B., LL.M. and PhD degrees from the University of Delhi, India. His research papers have been published in various international and national journals. He is the assistant editor of the  Banaras Law Journal  and guest editor of NUSRL Journal of Law and Policy . His main areas of specialization are intellectual property laws and arbitration law.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Contemporary Issues in International Law

Book Subtitle : Environment, International Trade, Information Technology and Legal Education

Editors : B.C. Nirmal, Rajnish Kumar Singh

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6277-3

Publisher : Springer Singapore

eBook Packages : Law and Criminology , Law and Criminology (R0)

Copyright Information : Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018

Hardcover ISBN : 978-981-10-6276-6 Published: 23 February 2018

Softcover ISBN : 978-981-13-4846-4 Published: 01 February 2019

eBook ISBN : 978-981-10-6277-3 Published: 13 February 2018

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XVI, 625

Number of Illustrations : 5 b/w illustrations

Topics : International Economic Law, Trade Law , International Environmental Law , IT Law, Media Law, Intellectual Property

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