(Papers to be published in Employee Rights & Employment Policy Journal.)
One or more presenters to be selected from Call for Papers.
The ascendancy of the financial sector in the world economy—up to more than 50% of GDP in the United States—has led to increasingly speculative risk-taking investments. This trend culminated in the credit crash of 2008 and the Great Recession still plaguing the global economy. The increase in financial products investments contributed to decreasing investment in production, as well as job shifting and exportation that has restructured the United States and world labor markets. These panels explore the domestic, international, and comparative aspects of this restructuring.
The first panel will focus on the impact of global financial capital on American labor markets, and consider the role of international organizations and transnational norms in addressing these dynamics. Topics will include community syndicalism and global supply chains, the effects on workers of restructuring within international financing, and the issues raised by international labor standards and multilateral trade agreements.
The second panel will bring a comparative perspective to the evolutions of labor and employment law following the rise of financial capital and the financial crisis. How have different legal orders facilitated and/or responded to the rise of “precarious” or “contingent” work, the decline of the standard employment contracts, and the burdens of the crisis on the most vulnerable workers, such as migrant workers? How might we evaluate the broader developments in law and public policy in fields such as corporate governance, as they affect the status of workers? How does comparison across national and supranational legal orders illuminate the varieties of capitalism? How has the global financial crisis affected workers in China and the developing world?
Business Meeting of Section on Comparative Law at Program Conclusion.
Business Meeting of Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law at Program Conclusion.