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Henner Gött Editor
Labour
Standards in
International
Economic Law
Labour Standards in International Economic Law
Henner G€ott
Editor
Labour Standards in
International Economic Law
Editor
Henner G€ott
Georg-August-University G€ottingen
Institute of International and European Law
G€ottingen, Germany
v
Contents
vii
viii Contents
ix
x Contributors
Henner G€
ott
Content
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Against this backdrop, securing and improving adequate levels of worker pro-
tection while preserving the benefits of globalization has become an issue of utmost
importance.2 What is at stake is not only to ensure effective compliance and
implementation as a factual matter. Rather, there is also the normative question
which level of protection is adequate, or, in other words, how labour standards
should be protected and promoted in the light of the challenges posed by a
1
ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, adopted on 10 June 2008.
2
The ILO has conceptualized this question in its Decent Work Agenda, as laid down in its 2008
Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization. See International Labour Office (1999) and
Vosko (2002).
H. G€ott (*)
Georg-August-University G€
ottingen, Institute of International and European Law, G€
ottingen,
Germany
e-mail: [email protected]
globalized economy.3 Given the complexity of both the factual and the normative
dimension, it can hardly be surprising that no coherent, sustainable and satisfying
solution has been identified so far.
The status quo is that the protection and promotion of labour standards within the
context of economic globalization is dealt with in numerous contexts, which have
spawned a variety of different and disparate approaches both within and beyond the
confines of international law.4
Within the realm of international law, the two areas of prime relevance are
international labour law on the one hand and international economic law on the
other.
International labour law is concerned with the formulation and implementation
of internationally recognized labour standards, rights and policies. With its origins
dating back to the so-called ‘first globalization’ at the end of the nineteenth century,
it has demonstrated remarkable long-term viability.5 The ILO, the central interna-
tional organization in the field, has developed a comprehensive body of treaties,
recommendations, declarations and other instruments and a rich organizational
practice on the creation and implementation of labour standards. As to the current
economic globalization, the ILO has engaged in various initiatives to secure
adherence and to further promote labour standards.6 For one part, it has engaged
in both revisions and a prioritization of its numerous instruments. This resulted,
most prominently, in the identification of fundamental labour standards in the 1998
Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Righta at Work, which has become a
point of reference both for a realignment of resources and activities inside the ILO
and for numerous instruments and initiatives developed elsewhere. Moreover, the
ILO has defined and committed to pursue strategic objectives (job creation, fun-
damental principles and rights at work, social protection and social dialogue, as
well as gender equality as a crosscutting objective) in its Decent Work Agenda,
manifested in its 2008 Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization. At the
same time, the ILO has continued to experience major challenges to its work, both
internally and externally, some of which have the potential to substantially com-
promise its impact and, ultimately, even its relevance.
The second central body of law, international economic law, including interna-
tional trade law as well as international investment law and the law of international
financial institutions, frames and accompanies economic globalization through a
3
This normative dimension is relevant both for those concerned with positive international law and
those concerned with developing and changing this law as a matter of politics.
4
To promote coherence between these contexts has time and again amounted to a challenge in
itself. A prominent example is the—eventually unsuccessful—attempt to introduce labour stan-
dards into the law and practice of the WTO, on this see e.g. Leary (1997) and Weiss (2005).
Another example is the lengthy struggle to achieve at least some coherence between the so-called
EWI indicators used in the World Bank’s Doing Business Reports and the implementation and
further promotion of ILO conventions, Bakvis (2009).
5
On the origins and development see Servais (2014), p. 19 et seqq.
6
Maupain (2013), p. 51 et seqq.
Labour Standards in International Economic Law: An Introduction 3
rapidly developing body of norms. These norms are mostly laid down in multilat-
eral, regional and bilateral treaties and are significantly developed further by the
practice of powerful international organizations, such as the World Trade Organi-
zation (WTO), the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development
(OECD) or the Bretton Woods Institutions. These treaties and organizational
practices have had a profound impact on the current state of economic globaliza-
tion. In this context, they have also contributed to (re-)configuring the parameters
within which contemporary industrial relations take place. That being said, labour
standards have never been a central concern in international economic law—
indeed, they have at times been facing outright opposition.7 Yet, their role appears
to be slowly increasing at least in certain areas, for example in the context of
regional trade agreements.8
While international economic law and international labour law are two central
fields of concern, it would be negligent not to look beyond these two bodies of law.
With the international legal order being more developed and multifaceted than ever
before in history, it is only natural that the issue of protecting and promoting labour
standards in the globalized economy also touches on other areas of international
law, such as international institutional law or international human rights law.9
Certain human rights guarantees in regional and universal human rights instruments
have become central points of reference, like Art. 11 ECHR and the corresponding
jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, to name one prominent
example. In a similar vein, there are important links to the level of domestic law.10
What is more, labour standards play an increasing role in transnational economic
and social self-regulation by non-state actors. Non-state actors, such as enterprises,
trade unions and NGOs, have always played an important part in the formulation
and implementation of labour standards, both on the domestic and the international
level.11 As economic globalization coincides with diminishing regulatory capaci-
ties of states, self-regulation by non-state actors becomes more relevant also for
other parts of the international economic order.12 Many non-state actors have
developed own approaches to the protection and promotion of labour standards,
7
See e.g. the WTO’s refusal to include labour standards in its work, as prominently spelled out in
Singapore Ministerial Declaration, 18 Dec 1996, WT/MIN(96)/DEC, para. 4.
8
Including in recent major trade agreements, see e.g. Chapter 23 CETA. According to a 2016 ILO
study, ‘nearly half of trade agreements with labour provisions came into existence since 2008 and
over 80 per cent of agreements entering into force since 2013 included them’, ILO (2016), p. 22.
9
See e.g. Kolben (2010) and Swepston (2013).
10
As a general matter, international labour law heavily relies and depends on its implementation
through national legislators and authorities, see e.g. the obligations in Art. 19 (5) ILO Constitution.
Moreover, the issue of protecting labour standards in a globalized economy can become relevant in
civil litigation before domestic courts, see e.g. the pending case of Regional Court (Landgericht)
Dortmund, Mohammad Jabir et al. v. KiK Textilien und Non-Food GmbH, Case-No.7 O 95/15.
11
The most prominent example is the ILO’s tripartite structure, Art. 3 (1) and Art. 7 (1) ILO
Constitution. On further examples see Hepple (2005), p. 69 et seqq.
12
For a more general account see Peters et al. (2009).
4 H. G€
ott
some of which are transcending (or even clearly lying beyond) the realm of
international law in the traditional sense. Intricate examples for unilateral or
contractual cross-border self-regulation by enterprises, trade unions and NGOs
can be found in corporate codes of conduct, international framework agreements
or social labelling schemes.13 While evidently introducing normative propositions
on labour standards in globalization, the legal quality and relevance of these private
initiatives remain—at least from an international lawyer’s point of view—highly
uncertain.
The approaches to the protection and promotion of labour standards that can be
found in each of the aforementioned areas differ significantly as to their respective
rationale, scope, means and efficacy. Each of them has its own objectives, charac-
teristics, potentials and pitfalls. These divergencies in substance go along with a
considerable separation, and at times isolation, of professional and epistemic
communities of those who are concerned with international economic law and
those concerned with the protection and promotion of labour standards, both in
academia and in practice. This multidimensional fragmentation has repeatedly
resulted in remarkable misunderstandings, such as an unbalanced perception of
labour standards as mere obstacles to doing business, or unfortunate limitations of
political debates, e.g. when the question of how to improve labour chapters in trade
agreements is reduced to the issue whether these chapters should be enforceable by
temporary suspensions of trade benefits (so-called ‘trade sanctions’) or not. Perhaps
more than ever before, there is a need for increased coherence between approaches,
as there is a need for enhanced mutual understanding between communities.
This volume addresses some of the most pressing issues arising at the tangent of
international economic law and international labour standards. It deliberately
adopts a comprehensive perspective, covering the manifold approaches and the
different professional backgrounds mentioned above. Its aim is to provide analysis
and assessment of the law and practice, to broaden the perspective beyond
sub-fields and communities and to combine the threads in a single volume in
order to provide guidance to academics and practitioners who are facing the
challenge of securing adequate levels of worker protection in the globalized
economy.
The first part of the volume prepares the ground for the discussions in the
subsequent parts by elucidating the historical, organizational and conceptual back-
ground which informs labour standards and their role in international economic law
today.
The protection and promotion of labour standards in the international economic
order is by no means a new issue. As Peter-Tobias Stoll points out in his contribu-
tion, it has been a recurring issue ever since the end of the nineteenth century. In
order to shed light on the multiple connections and divisions between the economic
and social dimensions of international law and relations, he embarks on a historical
and analytical tour d’horizon. Claire La Hovary picks up in the present, assessing
13
See e.g. Davarnejad (2011), Burkett (2011) and Seidman (2009).
Labour Standards in International Economic Law: An Introduction 5
the ILO’s mandate and capacity to create, proliferate and supervise labour standards
in the globalized economy. Tripartism, the ILO’s most important foundational
feature, and its operationalization have come under severe pressure in the course
of the ILO’s post-2012 constitutional crisis. Yet, despite current difficulties,
La Hovary argues that ‘the current crisis affecting the ILO also suggests that the
organization does matter, as does its supervisory system’. While the ILO will
remain an institution of paramount importance in the field, it must not be
overlooked that contemporary labour law has transcended the traditional structures
of domestic and international law. It operates, in the words of Anne Trebilcock,
‘within, between and beyond States to form a type of (imperfect and incomplete)
multi-layered global governance’. In her contribution, Trebilcock points out why
this shift from international to transnational labour law matters for labour standards.
She concludes that transnational labour law’s ‘broader vision of reuniting the social
and the economic [. . .] seems at least theoretically better placed to test different
solutions until the most promising can emerge within a particular context’.
After the scene is set, the contributions in the volume’s second part explore the
role of labour standards in the most prominent fields of international economic law,
which are trade, investment and finance.
Given that initiatives to include provisions on labour into the multilateral trade
regime failed both in the case of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) and again when establishing the WTO, Thomas Cottier explores whether
the recent WTO EC - Seals case will be of help in this regard. He concludes that the
WTO’s case law is worth studying and that such studies will likely reveal some
policy space ‘to support and pursue labour standards and human rights abroad,
using the means and instruments of trade policy in a well-calibrated manner’.
Franziska Humbert, in focusing on child labour, advocates in favour of an
ILO-WTO implementation mechanism. This institutional solution, she argues,
can be seen in line with a ‘constitutionalist approach’.
Many of the preferential trade agreements that have recently been concluded or
are currently being negotiated to try to rectify the WTO’s refusal to address labour
standards. As Tonia Novitz explains, in EU trade agreements, there is ‘an apparent
shift away from a human rights [. . .] perspective to one more focused on sustainable
development’, which in her view warrants caution. The same holds true in view of the
involvement of the civil society in this context, as Jan Orbie, Lore Van den Putte and
Deborah Martens conclude after a look to the actual practice of such civil society
mechanisms in the light of their objectives. Their analysis reveals that civil society
involvement in free trade agreements lacks a clear definition of purpose. As they put
it: ‘It appears unclear what exactly civil society should be doing in this regard.’
The relevance of labour provisions in trade agreements largely depends on their
implementation and enforcement mechanisms. The North American Free Trade
Area (NAFTA) side agreement on labour employed a specific arbitration model,
which the US has used, with certain modifications, in its subsequent trade agree-
ments. As Patrick Abel points out in his comparative analysis, however, these
mechanisms suffer from ‘an unsuitable procedural and institutional design’,
which may explain that the mechanisms have only poorly been used and have not
6 H. G€
ott
lived up to expectations. Drawing from these findings, Henner G€ ott explores the
potential of ‘an Individual Labour Complaint Procedure for Workers, Trade
Unions, Employers and NGOs in Future Free Trade Agreements’. This proposal
is aiming at endowing those actors which have a genuine interest in the implemen-
tation of labour chapters in trade agreements with the procedural means to do so,
thus enhancing the chapter’s overall performance. The debate on labour chapters in
trade agreements has an immediate and continuing practical relevance. The
EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which was
signed in October 2016 and is being provisionally applied at the time of this writing,
has received widespread public attention and criticism in Europe. The same is true
for the envisaged EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP),
which, despite its fate being uncertain after the last presidential election in the USA,
is likely to remain a point of reference in future trade negotiations. Reingard
Zimmer analyses these agreements with a special focus on social standards. She is
particularly concerned about the far-reaching mechanisms for regulatory coopera-
tion and investment protection.
Next to trade provisions, investment liberalization and protection is an integral
part of recent trade agreements. Henner G€ ott and Till Patrik Holterhus discuss
whether the combination of investment and labour chapters in recent free trade
agreements may enhance the role of labour standards in international investment
law. They conclude that there are indeed ‘opportunities to promote an adequate
balance of investor and labour concerns’, but the provisions in contemporary
agreements and drafts ‘do not in themselves sufficiently steer towards this goal’.
Besides trade and investment, the law of international financial institutions is the
third important pillar of international economic law. In historical perspective, the
World Bank Group member organizations’ approaches to labour standards have
repeatedly led to conflicts and critique. Franz Christian Ebert explains that, in
2016, the World Bank has ‘for the first time [set out] detailed labour standards
requirements for both the Bank’s staff and its borrowers’, which, however, have
their shortcomings.
The volume’s third part addresses the numerous and diverse non-state actor
approaches to enhance the protection and promotion of labour standards in the
globalized economy.
The inclusion of labour standards in self-imposed corporate codes of conduct has
received wide resonance in academia and practice, including both appraisal and
critique. Katja Gehne approaches this phenomenon from a practitioner’s point of
view. Finding that ‘soft standards at the international level have emerged as a
standard of responsible business management’, she argues that they ‘could be part
of a (para-)legal answer to deficiencies of national states’ human rights protection
systems’. To step in governance gaps is also the purpose of joint endeavors of trade
union federations and multinational groups to strengthen labour standards in cor-
porate governance by way of international framework agreements. In his contribu-
tion, R€
udiger Krause highlights that the success of such agreements largely depends
on them being implemented in strong and resilient industrial relations, which in turn
they are able to reinforce. Therefore, he calls for the conclusion of more robust
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