Course: The International Law of Work 

Prof. Guy Mundlak

Credits: 2

Young women labor stitching jeans in Bangladesh; fishermen in Southern United States losing their jobs to Vietnam; care live-ins work around the clock; construction workers in Germany remain unemployed at the time Polish workers are being posted in Germany; consumers boycott Nike, but hesitate before paying premium prices for fair trade coffee; trade unions around the world support their fellow dock-workers in the Liverpool port. What do we make of these examples?

As labor and capital markets transcend domestic borders, the objectives of labor law can no longer be confined solely to actions within the nation state. The purpose of this course is twofold. First, to identify the diverse components of international employment and labour law, the institutions, the claims and the methods for advancing social protection to workers world-wide. This inquiry spans beyond traditional instruments that are associated with labor law, and includes trade law, private international law, international human rights and corporate social responsibility. It further seeks to embed the study of legal instruments in the broader economic and sociological debates on globalization. The second goal is to critically assess how international developments affect domestic labor law and our perception of the ethical and economic values that underscore this body of law.

Course Objectives

• To understand the debates about globalization
• To embed legal dilemmas in social and economic context
• To test our moral intuitions about dilemmas of global justice
• To piece together the various components of the loose body of law that we designate as international labor law.
• To start from the local premises of labor law we are familiar with and to test them in the move from the national to the international

Grade Components: Take Home Exam, with up to 5 points for active class participation