In the United States, union density continues to decline, while income inequality increases. But while union density falls we have experienced the counterintuitive rise in international framework agreements (IFAs), or agreements signed by global union federations (“global unions”) and...

The past few decades have witnessed the growth of an exciting debate in the legal academy about the tensions between economic pressures to commodify and philosophical commitments to the market inalienability of certain items. Sex, organs, babies and college athletics are among the many topics...

Discussion of the territorial scope of the New Zealand Wages Protection Act in Mehta v Elliot (Labour Inspector). The authors argue that the territorial scope of all New Zealand statutes should be addressed by Parliament as a matter of course. As Judge Colgan pointed out in Mehta, this issue...

In 2009, Belgium and the Netherlands announced a deal to send approximately 500 Belgian inmates to Dutch prisons, in exchange for an annual payment of £26 million. The arrangement was unprecedented, but justified as beneficial to both nations: Belgium had too many prisoners and not enough...

This chapter explores the role of international law in the governance of globalization, with special attention to the contribution of international labour standards. Following a contextual overview, my perspectives comprise three aspects. I first address the current legal landscape of...

This paper focuses on the nexus between international labour standards and international trade governance, as labour rights provisions (applicable to both local and migrant workers) are increasingly being included in free trade agreements. Nevertheless, for the past few decades, the preservation...

Italy is the second producer of tomatoes in the world after the United States, and it is often considered the homeland of this food. Yet, the Italian tomato is much more than Italian. If one considers the people, geography, regulations and history behind the ‘golden pome' (pomo-d'oro in...

Over roughly the last ten years, there has been an explosion of scholarship on transnational labour law, as commentators attempt to come to terms with the shifting labour law paradigm in the new economy. Most of the work has filled law review pages. Fortunately, Sir Bob Hepple has led the way in...

Firms reliant on supply chains to manufacture their goods risk reputational harm if the working conditions in those factories are revealed to be dangerous, illegal, or otherwise problematic. While firms are increasingly relying on private-sector ‘social auditors' to assess factory conditions,...