Master en Ciencias Jurídicas
Course: Trade Agreements and Labor Law
Term: 3º
Credits: 3
Language:
English
Professor: Julia López López and César González Cantón
Office: 40.013
Contact: [email protected], [email protected]
Course description
Theorical Approach: The course has as goal to study some of the debates of Labor
Law related to Trade Agreements underlining the rule of actors in the new design
of labor conditions regulation. We will point especially at the new forms of
regulation of labor rights from a multi-level perspective. The complexity of this
multi-level perspective permits to enter into the debate of the process of
conformation of labor rights developed by International and European Union labor
law, and other regulation techniques, such as the open method of coordination and
corporate and multicompanies Codes of conduct. Trade Agreements will serve as
milestones in offering possible answers to the question whether or not labor rights
have to be included in free trade agreements.
Skills: At the end of the course, the students should be able to read some of the
current labor relations debates from the perspective of Trade Agreements, in the
interaction of supranational, national, and local regulations.
Requirements
English.
Methodology
Lectures, and active participation based on the readings is recommended.
Syllabus
1º
session
Globalization as Framework: Elements for a Definition
2º
session
3º
session
Trade Agreements and Labor Law: the Decommodification of Labor
4º
session
5º
session
6º
session
7º
session
8º
session
New ways of social representation: supranational collective
agreement and transnational collective action
Trade Agreement: the European Union
Trade Agreement: Mercosur y Nafta
Trade Agreement: South Asia
TNCs as Global Players: Protect, Respect, and Remedy. Theories of
Corporate Social Responsibility
Varieties of Instruments for the Implementation of the CSR
9º
session
Syllabus
External Monitoring and Accountability of TNCs
Globalization as Framework: Elements for a Definition
Movie:
Michael Moore, Capitalism: a love story (2009)
1
2 Trade Agreements and Labor Law: the Decommodification of
Labor
Reading:
Hepple, B., Labour Law and Global Trade, Hart Publishing, 2005.
3 New ways of social representation: supranational collective
agreement and transnational collective action
Reading:
Turner, L., Cornfield, DB, Labor in the new urban battlegrounds. Local
solidarity in a global economy, Cornell, 2007, 1–18.
4 Trade Agreement: the European Union
Reading:
López López, J., The OMC as decentralization of regulation and caselaw: a gender mainstreaming perspective, in (eds., Landa, JP y Langille,
B), Employment policies and multilevel governance, Kluwer, 2008.
Trade Agreement: Mercosur y Nafta
Reading:
Ros, Jaime, “La economía mexicana: del TLCAN a la crisis actual”.
5
Trade Agreement: South Asia
Reading:
Bhagwati, J., Termites in the Trading System, Oxford University Press,
2008.
6
7 TNCs as Global Players: Protect, Respect, and Remedy. Theories of
Corporate Social Responsibility
Reading:
Ruggie, J. G. (2008). “Protect, Respect and Remedy: The United Nations
Framework for Business and Human Rights.” Innovations 3(2): 189–212.
Case study: Google vs China.
8 Varieties of Instruments for the Implementation of the CSR
Case study: The Sekem Initiative.
9 External Monitoring and Accountability of TNCs
Reading:
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Guidelines
(http://www.globalreporting.org/Home).
Activities
Reading and commenting the recommended bibliography, the case studies, and
the movie.
Grading
Concept
Participation
Final paper
40%
60%
Comments
It is necessary to attend and participate 90% of the classes.
Final paper reading the movie Metrópoli under the
perspective of some of the topics developed in the syllabus.
Bibliography y materials
The recommended bibliography.
Michael Moore, Capitalism: a love story (2009)
Case study: Google vs China.
Case study: The Sekem Initiative.