European Labor & Employment Law

Course Catalog Number:
5252
Course Credits:
2
Course Type:
Lecture
Course Priority:
General Enrollment Course
Full Year Course:
No

Course Description

This course examines International and European Labor Markets Law, including how the "European social model", as opposed to the Anglo-Saxon or American model, which has generated European Union wide standards for employment and labor protection. While the course begins with an introduction to the International Labour Organization, the bulk of the course focuses on the European Union as the cradle of pan-European labor and employment law.
The course begins with the basic constitutional framework of the EU, and the essential characteristics of EU-law, including the pseudo-federal nature of the EU, supremacy of EU law, the theory of enumerated powers and subsidiarity, and the functioning of the European Court of Justice as a genuine supreme court. This is followed with a historical overview of the political and legal roots of the famed European social model, with particular emphasis on its international origin. In its institutional section, the course will explain the position of social policy in the founding treaties and the emergence of a European labor movement complete with European-wide collective bargaining agreements. In its substantive part, the course will address relevant and topical issues with a focus on business relevance, such as employee protection in a transfer or restructuring of companies, information and consultation rights, the European company, and the exponential rise of employment discrimination law.