o x f o r d l a w - graduate taught courses: european employment and equality law

oxford law

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European Employment and Equality Law
Recent decades have witnessed a dramatic transformation of the aims of the European Community. The assumption in the Treaty of Rome that economic integration would naturally bring about social development was replaced in the 1970’s by the view that “vigorous action in the social sphere is ... just as important as achieving Economic and Monetary Union.” This realisation led to the rapid evolution of a social dimension to the internal market, culminating in the incorporation into the Treaty of Amsterdam of a proper legal basis for legislating on employment law and the strengthening and expansion of equality law. This course aims to develop a critical perspective whereby students can assess these developments, examining the conflicting pressures of harmonisation and subsidiarity, the legitimacy and effectiveness of EU intervention, the role of the social partners and other actors in producing employment and equality legislation, and the nature and form of regulation which has thus far emerged, including the European Employment Strategy.


			text: larger smaller

	European Employment and Equality Law Recent decades have witnessed a dramatic transformation of the aims of the European Community. The assumption in the Treaty of Rome that economic integration would naturally bring about social development was replaced in the 1970’s by the view that “vigorous action in the social sphere is ... just as important as achieving Economic and Monetary Union.” This realisation led to the rapid evolution of a social dimension to the internal market, culminating in the incorporation into the Treaty of Amsterdam of a proper legal basis for legislating on employment law and the strengthening and expansion of equality law. This course aims to develop a critical perspective whereby students can assess these developments, examining the conflicting pressures of harmonisation and subsidiarity, the legitimacy and effectiveness of EU intervention, the role of the social partners and other actors in producing employment and equality legislation, and the nature and form of regulation which has thus far emerged, including the European Employment Strategy.