Labour and Constitutionalism-from-Below: On the Effective Potential of Legal Strategy

Lead Research Organisation: University of Bristol
Department Name: Law

Abstract

The central aim of my research is to comprehend how labour movements engage strategically with law as a means to realise their political demands. I investigate the characteristics of effective strategic engagements with legal instruments, from concrete legislative provisions to more abstract constitutional values, and evaluate the types of legal strategies that can facilitate labour's democratic ambitions. Today, labour faces significant political, legal, and economic challenges which makes it a key subject of socio-legal inquiry. My research responds to labour's socio-economic and legal context and is committed to describing and critically evaluating how movements have used legal mechanisms to re-balance the present relation between labour and capital.
During the Fellowship I will engage with academic debates about the agency of social struggles in constitutional democracies and the ways that contemporary labour movements, such as 'gig economy' workers, have used law as a tool of social emancipation. To do so, I will establish a proven publication record by consolidating my PhD research into three journal articles that shape a distinctive research field connecting socio-legal inquiry with pressing concerns in labour law and constitutional theory. This will represent a significant contribution to constitutional theory because it contests the present focus on top-down governmental processes and encourages an innovative methodological approach 'from-below'. In the socio-legal and labour law fields, my research returns to a dormant yet fundamental stream of socio-legal analysis- legal mobilisation scholarship. Drawing on both theoretical and empirical analysis, I provide evaluative criteria from which to assess the opportunities and limitations of law as a tool of political struggle and a rigorous account of legal mobilisation by the factory recuperation movement in Argentina.
My research is motivated by the challenge of comprehending contemporary labour's heterogenous experience of legal and political structures, and the extent to which labour can be understood as a societal and political force within constitutional frameworks. Under contemporary conditions labour is confronted with the fragmentation of work, the hollowing-out of legally permissible forms of industrial action, and the deregulation of labour protections. To comprehend the context of labour and to draw generalisable conclusions about its potentially productive relation with legal structures, I will extend my commitment to empirical analysis of legal struggles. Through case studies of labour's legal struggles in the U.K., Greece, and Spain I will provide comparative analysis of the contextual factors that shape labour's strategic engagements with law.
In order to further uncover the specificity and changing nature of labour's legal challenge, it is necessary to develop a collaborative network of researchers and research users. I will organise a workshop that facilitates collaborations between academic and non-academic audiences, contributes to current academic conceptions of labour and legal struggle, and catalyse a rigorous field of future research. These meetings aim to produce practical guidance about effective strategies for labour movements, a policy report, and work towards an edited collection documenting labour's practical experiences of struggle.
The Fellowship is an outstanding opportunity to achieve aims and objectives that will significantly contribute to my future research career. A postdoctoral position will provide the conditions under which I can establish a publication record, contribute new research to current academic debates, build networks, gain new teaching experience, improve my professional and academic skills through training opportunities, and develop funding applications. This programme of activities is focused toward and will be critical in supporting my career ambitions as an academic in the U.K. higher education sector.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description In my ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, I set out to build-upon my PhD research and enhance my future research career by completing five objectives: (i) Disseminate my research and establish a track record of high-quality publications; (ii) Expand upon my doctoral research through new case study analysis; (iii) Build collaborative research networks and develop impact opportunities; (iv) Develop funding proposals; and (v) Engage in teaching opportunities that amplify my research expertise and contribute to future employability. I am pleased to report that I have completed all of these objectives, although my outputs have been partially achieved which I will document further below.

I have published two peer-reviewed journal articles in high impact interdisciplinary journals, the International Journal of Law in Context (IJLC) and the International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations (IJCCLLIR). My article in the IJLC, entitled 'The opportunity and limitation of legal mobilisation for social struggles: A view from the factory recuperation movement', makes an original and significant contribution to socio-legal debates on legal mobilisation. The focus on the recuperation movement provides novel analysis of an Argentinian social movement, the legal aspects of which have not been previously documented in the English-language literature. This article responds to contemporary debates in labour law, socio-legal studies, and legal theory about the effectiveness of strategic litigation/legal mobilisation and provides an original conception of both the interpretive opportunities in law and the limitations on achieving political objectives through legal means.

My second article, 'Labour movements and the potential effectiveness of legal strategy: Three tenets', was published in the leading international specialist journal, the IJCLLIR, as part of a special issue which I organised and guest edited. This article makes an original and significant contribution to current labour law and legal mobilisation literature by providing a conceptual framework for analysing the potential effectiveness of strategic litigation in industrial relations context. The issue brings together leading scholars (labour law, constitutional law, industrial relations, socio-legal studies) and legal practitioners (trade union barrister) to make a significant contribution to the current literature on strategic litigation in the labour law context. The findings from both of these outputs can be taken forward by academics in the fields of labour law, socio-legal studies, and industrial relations who are concerned with the effectiveness of strategic litigation, as well as by legal practitioners and trade unionists.

The special issue was the product of an interdisciplinary workshop that I organised at the University of Bristol in June 2021 on 'Labour, strategy, and the constitutional protection of work.' This was a multi-disciplinary collaborative workshop with academic and non-academic contributors in the fields of labour law, constitutional law, equality law, sociology, political science, and industrial relations. This workshop has enabled me to build a particular interdisciplinary research network on strategic litigation in the context of labour law and industrial relations. This is a burgeoning field of academic study in which I am continuing to research. Our workshop papers have been published in a special issue on strategic litigation and labour movements in the IJCLLIR. Moreover, I have launched a thematic series of short blogs with many of the workshop's authors as part of an e-publication series with the Institute of Employment Rights (IER). The IER's diverse audience will maximise the impact of our outputs amongst trade unions, workers, industrial relations experts, and labour lawyers.

I am delighted to report that I have been awarded a prestigious ESRC New Investigator Grant (ES/W001098/1). The project, 'TRACTION: Transnational Labour Constitutionalism: Strategic Litigation and the Constitutional Protection of Work', was developed during my ESRC PDF and will provide an excellent opportunity for me to develop as a researcher, engage in innovative research, and contribute original and significant outputs in the fields of labour law, socio-legal studies, and constitutional theory. In this regard, the research completed during the Postdoctoral Fellowship will be taken forward by me as the principal investigator on an upcoming major research project. The TRACTION project will provide an in-depth examination of the ways that European labour movements have engaged in strategic litigation before supranational courts in Europe. This project will generate original insights about the effectiveness of strategic litigation and the role of transnational legal orders in contemporary labour regulation to academics, trade unionists, and labour lawyers.

Finally, a key objective of the ESRC PDF scheme is for early-career researchers to establish themselves in their field and to move to the next stage of their career as a professional researcher. In September 2021, I started a new role as a research-track lecturer in law at the University of Leeds.
Exploitation Route As documented above, the publications can be taken forward by academics in the fields of labour law, socio-legal studies, and industrial relations as well as legal practitioners and trade unionists.
Sectors Government

Democracy and Justice

Other

URL https://www.ier.org.uk/labour-strategy-and-legal-mobilisation/
 
Description The research project set out two main impact aims: First, to organise a collaborative workshop that facilitates knowledge exchange and establishes a productive research network on labour law and legal mobilisation; Second, to disseminate workshop contributions in an accessible format to research-users and beneficiaries. I have edited and contributed to a series of short, informative blogs with the Institute for Employment Rights (IER) on 'Labour, Strategy, and Legal Mobilisation'. The beneficiaries of the series are trade union lawyers, trade union officials, and other practitioners working in the industrial relations context, such as those at trade union policy institutions. The blog series has conceptual impact through educational resources that share best practices and understanding about the use of strategic litigation by trade unions in the UK. Each blog draws upon the specific expertise and experience of its author to develop understanding of the ways that law can be used strategically by trade unions. As a result, the knowledge and expertise disseminated in the series is co-produced by a diverse range of stakeholders. This ensures that the outputs reflect the key concerns and insights of practitioners and focus upon the issues which are of high-priority to research-users. For example, the current contributors include: Lord John Hendy KC, leading industrial relations law barrister; Alex Marshall, President of the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain; Professor Simon Deakin, University of Cambridge, and Dr Jamie Woodcock, University of Essex. The blog series is on-going. Importantly, the contributions to the series provide accessible, contemporary analysis of the opportunities and limitations of litigation in the industrial relations context. The IER is the leading policy institute for trade unions and industrial relations practitioners, which will ensure access to our research by relevant stakeholders and maximise its impact. The series is produced for a non-academic audience and is available open-access via the IER's website as well as being circulated to potential beneficiaries by the IER in its regular bulletins. It is envisaged that these a/synchronous educational resources will have instrumental and capacity-building impact in the future. For example, as the blog aids understanding of the different legal arguments that can be mobilised and the in/effective strategies that have previously been deployed by trade unions, it can be used to shape the behaviours of trade unions and legal practitioners, as well as develop the technical comprehension of the obstacles and opportunities that workers and trade unions will face in court. The knowledge exchange workshop and establishment of a collaborative research network on labour law and legal mobilisation was critical to the delivery of the IER blog series. I organised an ESRC-funded workshop on legal mobilisation by trade unions which facilitated collaborative research amongst a diverse range of stakeholders, including: Trade unionists, legal practitioners, and academics in the fields of labour law, socio-legal studies, and industrial relations. This initiative has developed inter/multi-disciplinary approaches to the study of legal mobilisation in the context of industrial relations and facilitated knowledge exchanges between researchers in relevant fields, practitioners with first-hand experience, and research-users. Furthermore, the workshop launched a collaborative research network on legal mobilisation and labour law which has since led to the organisation of panels at prestigious international conferences. I co-organised (with Dr Manoj Dias-Abey and Dr Eleanor Kirk) a panel at the Law and Society Association (LSA) Global Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal (2022), which brought together internationally-renowned scholars, including Professors Michael McCann (University of Washington) and Scott Cummings (UCLA), working on legal mobilisation in the UK and North America. In May 2022 I was invited to attend a collaborative workshop hosted by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) on 'Occupational Health and Safety: Strategic Litigation at a Crossroads'. The ETUI invited 25 academics and practitioners with expertise in strategic litigation in labour law, AI and new technologies, and environmental law. The workshop provided key opportunities to learn from and exchange knowledge with a diverse range of academics, trade unionists, and legal practitioners on the topic of mobilising law in the industrial relations context. Importantly these activities and research network have underpinned and facilitated the co-production of research questions and will guide the production of impactful outputs during my TRACTION research project.
First Year Of Impact 2021
Sector Other
Impact Types Societal

 
Description TRACTION: Transnational Labour Constitutionalism: Strategic Litigation and the Constitutional Protection of Work
Amount £206,483 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/W001098/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2022 
End 02/2024
 
Description Labour, strategy, and the constitutional protection of work 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact I organised a workshop in June 2021 on 'Labour, strategy, and the constitutional protection of work' at the University of Bristol, bringing together academic lawyers in the fields of labour law and constitutional law, academic researchers in sociology and industrial relations, practising employment lawyers, and trade unionists. This research exchange event facilitated the sharing of practices and knowledge from different perspectives and stakeholders on the subject of effective strategic litigation in the employment law field. Importantly, this event (and outputs) enabled researchers to learn from the insights and experiences of trade union lawyers and trade union organisers, and vice versa, trade unionists were able to engage with research insights about strategic litigation in the industrial relations context. The workshop will culminate in the publication in 2022 of a set of short blogs from each contributor on the IER's website. This forthcoming online publication series with the IER will feature several leading labour law academics, labour law practitioners, and trade unionists. Importantly, the IER's audience is largely non-academic and is focused on trade unionists and workers which will maximise the impact of the activity/research project's outputs and insights.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021