Reforming labor law for the new century

The two articles that follow are the first published fruit of a conversation that was initiated in 1998 under the auspices of "Labor Law Reform for Developed Countries in the 21st Century," several years of conferences leading to the May 2000 Tokyo Conference of the International Industrial Relations Association. This project has had generous support from the Center for Global Partnership of the Japan Foundation and from the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law at Columbia Law School.\nThe participants have been labor law professors from Europe, Japan, and the United States. The group has focused its research and its comparative discussions on four topics: security and flexibility in employment, work and family, aging societies, and globalization. All participants agreed that these socio-economic realities engage and challenge labor law as the new century opens. We anticipate that future issues of the Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal will contain additional articles stimulated by this project.