Labour Law or the Law of the Labour Market?

This chapter argues for the continued usefulness of the idea of the labour constitution as a framework for scholarly analysis. It builds, firstly, on a comparison of the scholarship of Sinzheimer and Kahn-Freund with the approach of the ‘law of the labour market’ scholars. It then aims to reassess the old approaches in light of globalization and the many changes implied by that term to production, distribution, finance, and work. Notwithstanding such changes, the framework of the labour constitution is argued to emphasize, still, the critical nature of the link between labour law and democracy. As such, it is argued to frame the subject of labour law in a way that allows for important questions to be asked, and important arguments to be made: questions regarding the consequences for workers of the continuous expansion of markets insulated from democratic control; arguments which re-assert the importance of democracy and worker participation.