Marshall, Shelley; Fenwick, Colin --- "Labour law and development: Characteristics and challenges" [2016] ELECD 1534; in Marshall, Shelley; Fenwick, Colin (eds), "Labour Regulation and Development" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 1

Book Title: Labour Regulation and Development

Editor(s): Marshall, Shelley; Fenwick, Colin

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785364891

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Labour law and development: Characteristics and challenges

Author(s): Marshall, Shelley; Fenwick, Colin

Number of pages: 32

Abstract/Description:

The book explores the question of whether labour law has a positive role to play in promoting economic development, in the face of arguments that labour regulation is likely to play a negative role in this respect. It explores methodological issues, and pays attention to developments in different regions of the world. The book considers conceptual frameworks for labour market regulation that go beyond the purely economic – or econometric – and directly addresses the issues that arise in designing effective labour regulation for developing economies. The contributions in this volume do so very largely from qualitative, and/or socio-legal perspectives. They examine the employment effects of liberalising international trade, and also consider the role of the ILO in supporting labour law reforms at the national level. The book concludes that labour law can play a positive role, but that there are significant challenges to pursuing this goal. The aim of this introductory chapter is to canvass some of the particular challenges for regulating labour and promoting development in the economic South. Though the focus of this volume is on poor and middle-income countries, in an era where the classical paradigm of labour law is under attack, a focus on the relationship between labour law and development is broadly relevant. In ‘old’ Europe, for instance, labour law has been commemorated in recent funeral services. The ideas canvassed for revitalising labour market regulation in the economic South may also be applied to the economic North, particularly in relation to precarious and atypical workers.