LABOUR LAW

body of law applied to such matters as employment, remuneration, conditions of work, trade unions, and labourmanagement relations. In its most comprehensive sense, it also includes old age and disability insurance. Although labour-related laws have been traced as far back as the Code of Hammurabi, labour law as it is known today has its origin in the 18th century. It evolved from the influences and impact of the Industrial Revolution, the 18th-century Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the political forces that fomented and were shaped by those historical movements. Initially, labour laws were intended to provide protection to the working class, which, as a result of increasing mechanization, was being exposed to new abuses in the workplace. The first laws to protect children from abusive employment practices were enacted in England in 1802; but the bulk of labour laws in Europe were not passed until the late 19th century, and in the United States many laws were not enacted until the 1930s. Legal recognition of the right of workers to associate for the purpose of trade-union activity has been most decisively influenced by political changes and still remains an area within labour law which is very sensitive to political fluctuations. In the United Kingdom in 1824 and in France in 1884, restrictions prohibiting trade-union association were repealed, but many subsequent changes in these laws have occurred. In the United States, the right of workers to associate in trade unions was not firmly granted until the 1930s. In Asia and Africa labour issues did not arise until the 1940s and '50s. the varied body of law applied to such matters as employment, remuneration, conditions of work, trade unions, and industrial relations. In its most comprehensive sense the term includes social security and disability insurance as well. Unlike the laws of contract, tort, or property, the elements of labour law are somewhat less homogeneous than the rules governing a particular legal relationship. In addition to the individual contractual relationships growing out of the traditional employment situation, labour law deals with the statutory requirements and collective relationships that are increasingly important in mass-production societies, the legal relationships between organized economic interests and the state, and the various rights and obligations related to some types of social services. Labour law has won recognition as a distinctive branch of the law within the academic legal community, but the extent to which it is recognized as a separate branch of legal practice varies widely depending partly on the extent to which there is a labour code or other distinctive body of labour legislation in the country concerned, partly on the extent to which there are separate labour courts or tribunals, and partly on the extent to which an influential group within the legal profession practice specifically as labour lawyers. In the early phases of development the scope of labour law is often limited to the most developed and important industries, to undertakings above a certain size, and to wage earners; as a general rule, these limitations are gradually eliminated and the scope of the law extended to include handicrafts, rural industries and agriculture, small undertakings, office workers, and, in some countries, public employees. Thus a body of law originally intended for the protection of manual workers in industrial enterprises is gradually transformed into a broader body of legal principles and standards, which have basically two functions: the protection of the worker as the weaker party in the employment relationship, and the regulation of the relations between organized interest groups (industrial relations). Additional reading Important labour laws from countries throughout the world are reproduced in the International Labour Office's Legislative Series (3/yr.). International standards are published in C. Wilfred Jenks (ed.), The International Labour Code, 1951, 2 vol. (1952). For the impact of ILO standards, see David A. Waugh, The ILO and Human Rights, Comparative Labor Law, 5(2):186196 (Spring 1982); and C. Wilfred Jenks, International Protection of Trade Union Freedom (1957), Human Rights and International Labour Standards (1960), and Social Justice in the Law of Nations: The ILO Impact After Fifty Years (1970). Annual summaries of international judicial decisions in labour law appear in the JanuaryFebruary issue of International Labour Review. Descriptions of the labour law systems of many countries (with bibliographical references) are contained in R. Blanpain, International Encyclopaedia of Labour Law and Industrial Relations, 8 loose-leaf vol. (197781); shorter treatments can be found in R. Blanpain (ed.), Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations, 2nd rev. ed. (1985). The documentation published in connection with the international congresses organized by the International Society for Labour Law and Social Security contains comparative studies of particular aspects of labour law in various parts of the world; see, for example, Reports and Proceedings, 3 vol. (1984). C. Wilfred Jenks Johannes Schregle