Pluralism at Work in a Globalized Legal Order: Innovating International Labour Law.
Professor Diller is Paul Martin Sr. Professor of International Affairs and Law. She has practiced international law for 25 years in private and public organizations, including as legal adviser of the International Labour Organization (ILO) where she contributed to drafting international labour instruments and inter-institutional agreements.
Abstract:
New realities of the world of work and beyond are challenging established modes of regulating labour. Transnational value chains and non-standard forms of work bring an increasingly complex web of working relationships and responsibilities. In a rising trend, international labour standards are being invoked as rules and practices in international economic and monetary cooperation, trade and investment treaties, and industry social responsibility initiatives. Public international organizations and non-state actors wield growing influence over public policy choices affecting workers and their communities that used to be made exclusively within States and through international labour law (ILL) adopted within the International Labour Organization.
These realities pose challenges to the fundamental aim of ILL for all human beings to have the opportunity for well-being through decent work under national law that guarantees fair competition and the rights of workers. To effectively protect workers in globalized production and society, ILL’s traditional paradigm of State sovereignty is evolving to accommodate new methods for designing regulatory responses and collective bargaining arrangements, and to address the normative and operational diversity of pluralistic rules for the conduct of States and other duty bearers. Innovations in international labour lawmaking and cooperation with transnational initiatives suggest avenues for greater coherence and legal responsibility for human well-being within and across countries.
