• Introduction: The concept of the employer and the personal scope of employment law
• The received concept of the employer
• The shared exercise of employer functions across multiple loci of control
• The fragile scope of employment law coverage
• Complex employment structures in Germany : a comparative perspective
• A functional concept
• A single concept in different contexts
• Conclusion: The broader implications of a tension resolved.

Employment law has increasingly struggled to adapt to complex modern work arrangements, from agency work to corporate groups. This book suggests that the reason for this failure can be found in our concept of the employer, which has become riddled with internal contradictions in its search for a unitary employer, the counterparty to a bilateral contract, through a series of multi-functional tests focussed on the exercise of a range of employer functions. As a result of this tension, full employment law coverage is restricted to a narrow scenario where a single legal entity exercises all employer functions - a paradigm far from the reality of modern labour markets characterized by a fragmentation of work, from the rise of employment agencies and service companies to corporate groups and Private Equity investors. These problems can only be addressed by a careful reconceptualization and the development of a functional concept of the employer. The book draws on existing models in English, German, and European law to develop a definition of the employer as the entity, or combination of entities, exercising functions regulated in a particular domain of employment law. Each of the two strands of the current concept is addressed in turn to demonstrate how a more openly multi-functional approach can successfully overcome the rigidities of the current notion without abandoning a coherent underlying framework. It fills a crucial gap in employment law and corporate law with its analysis of the defects in our current understanding of the employer, and in developing a new functional concept designed to overcome the problems identified.
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• Labour law after labour / Harry Arthurs
• Factors influencing the making and transformation of labour law in Europe / Bob Hepple
• Re-inventing labour law? / Manfred Weiss
• Hugo Sinzheimer and the constitutional function of labour law / Ruth Dukes
• Global conceptualization and local constructions of the idea of labour law / Adrián Goldin
• The idea of the idea of labour law : a parable / Alan Hyde
• Labour law's theory of justice / Brian Langille
• Labour as a "fictive commodity" : radically reconceptualizing labour law / Judy Fudge
• Theories of rights as justifications for labour law / Hugh Collins
• The contribution of labour law to economic and human development / Simon Deakin
• Re-matching labour laws with their purpose / Guy Davidov
• The legal characterization of personal work relations and the idea of labour law / Mark Freedland and Nicola Kountouris
• Ideas of labour law : a view from the south / Paul Benjamin
• Informal employment and the challenges for labour law / Kamala Sankaran
• The impossibility of work law / Noah D. Zatz
• Using procurement law to enforce labour standards / Catherine Barnard
• Labor activism in local politics : from CBAs to "CBAs" / Katherine Stone and Scott Cummings
• The broad idea of labour law : industrial policy, labour market regulation, and decent work / John Howe
• The third function of labour law : distributing labour market opportunities among workers / Guy Mundlak
• Beyond collective bargaining : modern unions as agents of social solidarity / Gillian Lester
• From conflict to regulation : the transformative function of labour law / Julia López, Consuelo Chacartegui, and César G. Cantón
• Out of the shadows? : the Non-Binding Multilateral Framework on Migration (2006) and prospects for using international labour regulation to forge global labour market membership / Leah F. Vosko
• Flexible bureaucracies in labor market regulation / Michael J. Piore
• Collective exit strategies : new ideas in transnational labour law / Silvana Sciarra
• Emancipation in the idea of labour law / Adelle Blackett.

Labour law is widely considered to be in crisis by scholars of the field. This crisis has an obvious external dimension - labour law is attacked for impeding efficiency, flexibility, and development; vilified for reducing employment and for favouring already well placed employees over less fortunate ones; and discredited for failing to cover the most vulnerable workers and workers in the "informal sector". These are just some of the external challenges to labour law. There is also an internal challenge, as labour lawyers themselves increasingly question whether their discipline is conceptually coherent, relevant to the new empirical realities of the world of work, and normatively salient in the world as we now know it. This book responds to such fundamental challenges by asking the most fundamental questions: What is labour law for? How can it be justified? And what are the normative premises on which reforms should be based? There has been growing interest in such questions in recent years. In this volume the contributors seek to take this body of scholarship seriously and also to move it forward. Its aim is to provide, if not answers which satisfy everyone, intellectually nourishing food for thought for those interested in understanding, explaining and interpreting labour laws - whether they are scholars, practitioners, judges, policy-makers, or workers and employers.
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• Frameworks for internationally comparative analysis / Greg J. Bamber and Philippe Pochet
• An international review of key jurisdictions / Greg J. Bamber ... [et al.]
• An international review of key issues / Greg J. Bamber ... [et al.]
• Work and family
• Individual agreements
• Non-standard employment
• Minimum wage levels
• Working time
• Paid leave entitlements
• Employment protection
• Dispute settlement procedures
• Freedom of association and representative organizations
• Collective bargaining and collective industrial action : coverage and legal framework.

The complexity of employment arrangements in various countries tends to make it difficult to understand them. Nevertheless, it is important to 'take stock' periodically, particularly from an internationally comparative perspective. This remarkable book is a giant step in that direction. It is especially valuable in the context of increasing globalisation. For each of nine key jurisdictions - the European Union, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan -experts present detailed information and analysis on key issues, shedding valuable light on trends in such specific areas of employment relations as the following: * atypical work and flexible work arrangements; * dispute settlement procedures such as negotiation, conciliation, mediation, arbitration and other forms of governmental or judicial intervention; * job security, anti-discrimination, and gender equality; * recognition of unions and employers' associations and forms of employee representation; * how collective bargaining is regulated, who the collective agreements cover and what they contain; * parental leave and childcare policy; * the capacity of individual agreements to override or not override collective agreements; * minimum wage levels; * overtime and shift work; and * paid leave entitlements. As a general framework, an introductory chapter offers a highly insightful summary of the underpinnings of current analysis of globalization, including discussion of the varieties of capitalism thesis, the divergence/convergence debate (with its models of bipolarization, clustering, and hybridization), and elements of historical and political-economic path dependency in various cultures. The information gathered here provides a powerful new understanding of the increasing 'disconnect' between the prevailing institutional framework for employment relations and the sweeping changes that are taking place in the world of work. With this book's analysis, practitioners and policymakers will be able to overcome their dated assumptions and more effectively accommodate each others' interests in the face of the complex mix of continuity and change that they are confronting. The team of authors are authoritative experts in these countries. They are active in policy or legal analysis, business and/or scholarship.
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• Introduction / David C. Yamada
• Educating workers about labor rights and global wrongs through documentary film / Fran Ansley
• Working (with) workers : implementing theory / Miriam A. Cherry
• Making our work "work" / Jonathan Barry Forman
• In the cause of union democracy / Michael J. Goldberg
• A theory of adjudication : law as magic / Jessie Allen
• An introduction to the legal profession in China in the year 2008 / Gerard J. Clark
• The law of unintended consequences : shockwaves in the lower courts after Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly / Colleen McMahon.

• 1 Introduction: Goals and Means in the Regulation of Work Guy Davidov and Brian Langille I. THE VERY IDEA OF LABOUR LAW
• 2 Labour Law's Back Pages Brian Langille
• 3 What is Labour Law? Alan Hyde
• 4 Using Development Approaches to Address the Challenge of the Informal Economy for Labour Law Anne Treblicock II. THE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP AS A VEHICLE FOR THE DELIVERY OF RIGHTS AND ENTITLEMENTS
• 5 The Comparative Evolution of the Employment Relationship Simon Deakin
• 6 Labour Subordination and the Subjective Weakening of Labour Law Adrian Goldin
• 7 The Reports of My Death are Greatly Exaggerated: 'Employee' as a Viable (Though Over-used) Legal Concept Guy Davidov III. BRINGING ATYPICAL WORK ARRANGEMENTS INTO THE SCOPE OF LABOUR LAW
• 8 Rethinking Labour Law: Employment Protection for Boundaryless Workers Katherine V.W. Stone
• 9 Beyond the Boundaries: Prospects for Expanding Labour Market Regulation in South Africa Paul Benjamin
• 10 Protecting the Worker in the Informal Economy: The Role of Labour Law Kamala Sankaran
• 11 Ways and Effects of Deconstructing Protection in the Post-socialist New Member Status-Based on Hungarian Experience Csilla Kollonay Lehoczky
• 12 National and European Public Policy: the Goals of Labour Law Silvana Sciarra IV. IDENTIFYING THE EMPLOYER AND DETERMINING ITS RESPONSIBILITIES
• 13 The Complexities of the Employing Enterprise Paul Davies and Mark Freedland
• 14 The Legal Boundaries of the Employer, Precarious Workers, and Labour Protection Judy Fudge
• 15 Multi-segmented Workforces, Comparative Fairness, and the Capital Boundary Obstacle Hugh Collins V. INTERNATIONAL AND INSTITUTIONAL SOLUTIONS
• 16 The Employment Relationship: The Issue at the International Level Enrique Marin
• 17 The Employer and the Worker: The Need for a Comparative and International Perspective Jean-Claude Javillier
• 18 What Immortal Hand or Eye?-Who will Redraw the Boundaries of Labour Law? Harry Arthurs.
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Labour law has always been preoccupied with boundaries. One can either be an 'employee' or not, an 'employer' or not, and the answer dictates who comes within the scope of labour law, for better or worse. But such divisions have always been difficult, and in recent years their shortcomings have become ever more pronounced. The proliferation of new work arrangements and heightened global competition have exposed a world-wide crisis in the regulation of work. It is therefore timely to re-assess the idea of labour law, and the concepts, in particular the age-old distinctions - that are used to delimit the field. This collection of essays, by leading experts from around the world, explores the frontiers of our understanding of labour law itself. Contributors: Harry Arthurs, Paul Benjamin, Hugh Collins, Guy Davidov, Paul Davies, Simon Deakin, Mark Freedland, Judy Fudge, Adrin Goldin, Alan Hyde, Jean-Claude Javillier, Csilla Kollonay Lehoczky, Brian Langille, Enrique Marin, Kamala Sankaran, Silvana Sciarra, Katherine Stone and Anne Trebilcock.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

One of the major intentions of the Conservative governments of the 1980s was to redraw the landscape and map of industrial relations. They aimed to achieve this through a combination of measures: political initiatives and campaigning; a changed economic and social environment; and most directly a programme of industrial relations legislation that increasingly curtailed the role and influence of trade union. This book examines the policies and associated legislation directly intended to change union behaviour. It considers origins, purpose and impact on union behaviour and structure, focusing on the role of ballots as the central mechanism chosen for changing union decision-making. The changes that occurred as a consequence of this legislation are placed in the wider union context and the relative influence of the balloting legislation is assessed against other developments affecting union behaviour, including the strategies adopted by the unions' leaders. It finds the results were not always as intended by the Conservative governments. In a concluding chapter the authors ask whether the framework created in the UK will be an exemplar or exceptional case when compared with developments in other European countries. The book itself is the result of research carried out over almost a decade by a highly experienced and respected team who base their analysis on interviews, detailed analysis of legislation and union rule books, and a series of in-depth case studies. This richly detailed and authoritative book will be essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand how the changing framework of labour relations affected changes in union behaviour. the book will thus appeal to students and academics working in industrial relations, human resource management, labour law, labour economics and politics. Employee relations practitioners and policy makers - managers and trade unionists - will also find it useful for increasing their understanding of the purpose and effect of the legislation.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)