Comparing Labour Laws in the EU Internal Market: A Social Actor Perspective

The discipline of comparative labour law suffers from a dual crisis: comparative law may seem irrelevant if nation states are pushed back by ever accelerating globalization, and labour law may be rendered irrelevant by the digitalized economy. This article argues that, since states are becoming interdependent instead of superfluous, and work remains a dependent quantity, there is a future for comparative labour law. This future requires an even higher degree of interdisciplinarity with a strong recovery of disciplinary (doctrinal) research. This article develops a social actor-centred approach for comparing labour law and policy in the context of economic integration beyond states, as pursued by the European Union. A comparative project relating to collective labour rights in the EU internal market is outlined as an example of this methodology.