Human rights at work in international and comparative law

The course is held in English and has been specifically designed to allow students in Global Politics and Society to gain substantive knowledge of collective and individual human rights at work and their legal protection in international law. The course begins by examining collective labour rights such as freedom of association, right to collective bargaining, right to strike, right to information, consultation and participation in the decision-making process. Second, individual labour rights such as right to adequate minimum wage, right to protection against unfair dismissal, right to fair and just working conditions are taken into account. Students will acquire solid knowledge of the international and EU legal sources of fundamental human rights at work. They will investigate how these rights are recognized and protected in different legal traditions (USA, Europe and China) and to what extent new economic contexts, such as gig economy, platform and global supply chains challenge their traditional protection and existence. The course also intends to provide students with a good understanding of comparative method in the employment and labour law field as to enable them to develop an independent thinking on the American, European and Chinese legal perspective on relevant labour and social policies issues.

Students who attend the course will acquire competence to:
- identify fundamental collective and individual rights at work
- identify legal sources of employment relationship at international, EU and comparative law and understand how they interact;
- identify the main international actors and institutions in the labour law field and understand their role and functions in the promotion of human rights at work;
- acknowledge the problematic dialogue and conflict between economic freedoms and human rights;
- acknowledge the existence of different models of corporate governance and how they influence the topic of workers participation in the business making process;
- understand the current European and International debates on social policy issues;
- understand and compare main differences between the American, European and Chinese employment legal traditions.