Legal Origins, Labour Law and the Regulation of Employment Relations

Abstract

A major question within comparative employment relations and comparative law has been how best to explain differences in the form that regulation takes in different national settings. Over the course of the last decade and a half, an explanatory theory of cross-national differences in regulatory arrangements in a wide range of economic and social domains, including labour law, has emerged. This approach emphasises the role of a country’s ‘legal origins’ in determining its regulatory style and, hence, its economic and social characteristics. Legal origins has proved to be one of the most influential theories in comparative economics, political science and law. It has, however, also proved highly controversial. For example, the following questions arise. To what extent can the insights from the legal origins theory be applied to understand cross-national differences in labour market regulation? To what extent can these differences provide an adequate basis to understand divergent outcomes in labour management practices and employment relations in different countries? Are such differences correlated with employment relations outcomes? And to what extent are legal origins effects disappearing over time? The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the theory of legal origins and its application to the study of labour law and employment relations.