The capabilities approach: A panacea for labour law’s ills?

Author:

Cabrelli David1

Affiliation:

1. Professor of Labour Law, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a tendency to view the subject of labour law and its goals through the prism of philosophy, and political philosophy in particular. A veritable ‘cottage industry’ has sprung up devoted to this task. In this paper, I analyze the arguments presented by various authors in a book recently published under the editorship of Professor Brian Langille on The Capability Approach to Labour Law, which makes an important contribution to labour law scholarship. I make the point that the capabilities approach – a theory belonging to political philosophy – is undoubtedly a useful instrument insofar as it enables labour lawyers to sell the claims and arguments that the subject is attempting to make, but that if it is presented as an ostensibly univocal foundation, it is unlikely to stack up. Instead, by abstracting its partial and pluralist base, capabilities can be reconceptualised as only one justification for particular labour laws, serving alongside many other political philosophies. In this way, a veritable patchwork quilt of different foundations for specific labour laws can be stitched together. This paper then goes on to make some preliminary observations as to how such a fabric could be embroidered in a coherent and systematic manner.

Publisher

University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)

Subject

Law,Sociology and Political Science

Reference87 articles.

1. See the various chapters in Guy Davidov & Brian Langille, The Idea of Labour Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) [Davidov & Langille, Idea of Labour Law]; Hugh Collins, Gillian Lester & Virginia Mantouvalou, Philosophical Foundations of Labour Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018) [Collins, Lester & Mantouvalou, Philosophical Foundations].

2. Alan Bogg, ‘Labour, Love and Futility: Philosophical Perspectives on Labour Law’ (2017) 33:3 Intl J Comp Lab L & Ind Rel 7 [Bogg, ‘Labour, Love and Futility’].

3. Peter Birks, An Introduction to the Law of Restitution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989) at 1. See also Hugh Collins, ‘Contractual Autonomy’ in Alan Bogg et al, eds, The Autonomy of Labour Law (Oxford: Hart/Bloomsbury, 2015) 45 at 45–6 [Collins, ‘Contractual Autonomy’; Bogg et al, Autonomy of Labour Law].

4. See Hugh Collins, ‘The Contract of Employment in 3D’ in David Campbell, Linda Mulcahy & Sally Wheeler, eds, Changing Concepts of Contract (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013) 65; Collins, ‘Contractual Autonomy,’ supra note 3 at 45–6; Douglas Brodie, ‘Relational Contracts’ in Mark Freedland et al, eds, The Contract of Employment (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016) 145; Mark Freedland et al, eds, Criminality at Work (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).

5. Brian A Langille, ‘Seeking Post-Seattle Clarity-and Inspiration’ in Joanne Conaghan, Richard Michael Fischl & Karl Klare, eds, Labour Law in an Era of Globalization: Transformative Practices and Possibilities (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) 137 at 152–5; Brian A Langille, ‘Core Labour Rights: The True Story (Reply to Alston) (2005) 16 EJIL 409 [Langille, ‘Core Labour Rights’]; Brian A Langille, ‘Labour Law’s Back Pages’ in Guy Davidov & Brian Langille, eds, Boundaries and Frontiers of Labour Law (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2006) 23 [Langille, ‘Labour Law’s Back Pages’]; Brian A Langille, ‘Human Freedom and Human Capital’ in Tonia Novitz & David Mangan, eds, The Role of Labour Standards in Development (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) 28; Brian A Langille, ‘Labour Law’s Theory of Justice’ in Davidov & Langille, Idea of Labour Law, supra note 1, 101 at 118–19, 128; Brian A Langille, ‘“Take These Chains from My Heart and Set Me Free”: How Labour Law Theory Drives Segmentation of Workers’ Rights’ (2015) 36 Intl L Comp Lab L & Pol’y J 257; Brian A Langille, ‘Human Development: A Way Out of Labour Law’s Fly Bottle’ in Collins, Lester & Mantouvalou, Philosophical Foundations, supra note 1, 87 [Langille, ‘Human Development’].

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