Globalisation and Labour Rights
The appropriate relationship between the economic liberalisation of the global economy and other national and international norms, such as rights at work and other social rights, seems set to be a critical legal and political debate well into the next century, but study of the legal issues involved is still in its infancy. This course attempts to map the legal issues involving the interaction between international economic developments, socio-economic rights and labour law that are currently proving hard to resolve.
We consider several theoretical and practical issues. Some examples include: the relationship between traditional labour law and the emergence of human rights, the current role of the International Labour Organisation in securing international labour standards, the development and role of corporate social responsibility in addressing socio-economic and employment rights, the development and operation of corporate codes of conduct, the use of national legal remedies to address violations of labour and social rights extraterritorially, the role of international economic institutions such as the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank and the OECD, the appropriateness of "social clauses" in international trade and investment agreements, the role of regional trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the use of economic sanctions against countries which violate labour and social rights norms.