The Four Pillars of Work Law

Abstract:     
In our contemporary legal landscape, a student of the law of the workplace has scarce opportunity to encounter an integrated body of scholarship which analyzes the labor market as the subject of government regulation, contractual duties, collective action, and individual rights. This essay, reviewing two new books on workplace policies - Katherine V. W. Stone, FROM WIDGETS TO DIGITS: EMPLOYMENT REGULATION FOR THE CHANGING WORKPLACE (2004) and Raymond L. Hogler, EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES: LAW, POLICY, AND PRACTICE (2004) - offers a vision for integrating the fields of "employment law," "labor law," "employment discrimination" and the tax-oriented "employee benefits law" under the conceptual framework of Work Law. Although the four pillars of work law have developed relatively independently from one another, the realities of contemporary work defy this fragmented structure and its conceptual satellites. The subjects and regulatory tools of all four fields overlap significantly and it is increasingly problematic to study and regulate them separately.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 22

Keywords: workplace, worker rights, employment law, technology, globalization, welfare, labor

JEL Classification: I3, J00, J1, J3, J4, J5, J6, H7, K00, l5, O1

Accepted Paper Series