Labour and Labour Law in the Project of International Development

Colonialism and the modern project of development are deeply entangled—with labour provided by the Global South directly feeding processes of industrialisation in the Global North. Yet while labour has been central to development, it has played a marginal role, as its normative subject, the worker in a ‘standard employment relationship’, bears little resemblance to work and workers in developing countries. Orthodox understandings of modernisation hold that formalisation of labour, land, markets, and finance provide a path to development and progress for workers. This chapter offers a corrective to that view, indicating how regulatory initiatives concerning trade, labour standards, land, and entrepreneurialism, along with private law mechanisms, form part of the broader law of work, effectively determining the rights and protections of workers.

Development studies · Economic growth · Economics · Industrialisation · Labour economics · Labour law · Law and development · Market economy · Modernization theory · Normative · Political science · Subject (documents) · Work (physics) · Engineering · International Labor and Employment Law · Law