Constitutionalizing Employment Relations: Sinzheimer, Kahn‐Freund, and the Role of Labour Law

Abstract

Hugo Sinzheimer and his one‐time student Otto Kahn‐Freund are widely regarded as the founding fathers of German and British labour law respectively. While, at first glance, the two scholars might appear to have advocated rather different approaches to the regulation of employment relations, a review of their work reveals that both argued, in essence, for the ‘constitutionalization’ of those relations. Both argued, in other words, for the removal from the economic sphere of the otherwise inequitable consequences of the functioning of private law, so that collectivized labour might participate with capital, on a parity basis, in the autonomous regulation of the economy.

The Constitutionalization of Employment Relations: Multiple Models, Pernicious Problems

“…Workers in most advanced democracies today confront greater individual insecurity and loss of collective agency than they have in decades. The question posed by Ruth Dukes in an important recent article is whether the constitutionalization of employment relations will improve their situation (Dukes, 2008). In my view, it will not.…”

El trabajo precario y el bien común de los trabajadores

“…Si el gobierno de la polis tiene que estar sometido al control de sus miembros para servir a sus intereses, y si las empresas entrañan un cierto tipo de gobierno, entonces las empresas también deben estar constituidas para asegurar el bien común de los trabajadores. Esto justifica que los ideales democráticos y constitucionales usualmente referidos a la esfera política se traspongan a las relaciones laborales (Dukes, 2008;Gourevitch, 2013). Podemos ilustrar estos ideales en contraste con lo que Anderson denomina gobierno "privado": 9 Los empleadores tienen derechos residuales para decidir en todo lo que no está explícitamente cubierto por la ley y el contrato.…”

A global labour constitution?

“…Through labour law, the state recognised -'announced' -the economic actors; it empowered them to act (for example, to create legally binding norms through processes of collective bargaining and codetermination); and it set limits to their powers. 102 In the preceding part of this paper, I gave consideration to contemporary theories of constitutionalisation and to their identification of ways in which nation states might figure still today as the architects, overseers or agents of social progress. I began by noting that Joerges and Rödl's theory of global constitutionalisation by way of a global conflicts law shared significant continuities with Sinzheimer's conception of the labour constitution.…”