The European Private International Law of Employment

Abstract

The European Private International Law of Employment provides a descriptive and normative account of the European rules of jurisdiction and choice of law which frame international employment litigation in the courts of EU Member States. The author outlines the relevant rules of the Brussels I Regulation Recast, the Rome Regulations, the Posted Workers Directive and the draft of the Posting of Workers Enforcement Directive, and assesses those rules in light of the objective of protection of employees. By using the UK as a case study, he also highlights the impact of the 'Europeanisation' of private international law on traditional perceptions and rules in this field of law in individual Member States. For example, the author demonstrates that the private international law of the EU is fundamentally reshaping English conflict of laws by almost completely merging the traditionally perceived contractual, statutory and tortious claims into one claim for choice-of-law purposes.

Offshoring, Reshoring, and the Evolving Geography of Jobs

“…However, COVID-19 and subsequent geopolitical tensions caused firms to worry about supply chain disruptions, which were a key motivating factor for recent reshoring activity (Barbieri et al, 2020[63]). Indeed, up to the COVID-19 crisis, there was no clear sign of a trend towards deglobalisation, although the growth of international trade, capital and labour flows did slow down (Jaax, Miroudot and van Lieshout, 2023 [64]; Antràs, 2020 [65]; Goldberg and Reed, 2023 [5]). Post-COVID, companies appeared to have become more serious about reshoring.…”

“…There is perhaps less disagreement about the ability (or rather: the inability) of such policies to be significant sources of job creation in the domestic labour market-even though many policy makers believe that they could, particularly in historically well-paying industries such as manufacturing (Fish and Spillane, 2020 [93]). Some commentators have argued that reshoring policies are unlikely to bring back jobs and will, instead, slow global growth, innovation, and poverty reduction (Goldberg and Reed, 2023 [5]). The OECD has previously argued that government intervention in global value chains "risks creating costly distortions without minimising economic volatility and improving national security" (OECD, 2023 [98]) and the IMF warns it could "result in a significant drag on growth around the world" (Cerdeiro, Kothari and Muir, 2023 [99]).…”

“…In recent years, there have been growing calls for protectionism and reshoring. As Goldberg and Reed (2023 [5]) point out, there have been profound changes in the policy environment and public sentiment, building on the already existent anxiety about the labour market effects of import competition from lowwage countries. Even prior to the COVID-19 crisis, some countries like the United States introduced a series of tariffs that covered virtually all imports from China (Alfaro and Chor, 2023 [6]) while at the same time luring companies and jobs back by reducing corporate tax rates and regulations.…”

“…The future of globalisation and offshoring is therefore highly uncertain (Goldberg and Reed, 2023 [5]), with both challenges and opportunities presenting themselves. Some believe that the world economy is heading towards a "great reallocation" in supply chain activity (Alfaro and Chor, 2023 [6]) and it is not clear what impact these trends will have on domestic labour markets.…”

Contemporary Forms of Work With a Digital Feature in Private International Law

“…11 The function of such platforms is solely to mediate between users, i.e., between service providers and service recipients. 12 In simplified terms, the platform fulfills its purpose by connecting the service provider and the service recipient, who then directly enter into a contract. 13 The opposite category of digital platforms is those platforms that, in addition to their mediating function, also perform additional functions such as payment process- ing and monitoring of the services provided by the service provider.…”