Book Review: The Labour Constitution: The Enduring Idea of Labour Law
| Author | Gwenola Bargain |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271501700409 |
| Published date | 01 December 2015 |
| Date | 01 December 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Reviews
504 Intersentia
challenge that the author has mastered. She leads the reader to realise the extent to
which regulation is in uenced by culture and how policy-mak ing has to be based on
the actual conditions in a country. is may sound like a trui sm, but this principle is not
always su ciently observed in times when ‘quick and easy ’ nostrums for overcoming
(economic) crises are being searched for in inter- or supranational level policy.
e aut hor demonstrates clearly that social human rights a re not subordinate
to civil and political rights, but rather enable people to make use of the latter. Her
work expands the horizon i n many ways ‒ it goes beyond the Eurocentric point of
view as well as beyond the conventional deduction of legal positions from national
law. is makes the book, which is wr itten in German but does not follow a German
law perspective, signi cant for researchers of any national background. It therefore
deserves many readers.
Constanze Janda
SRH University of Applied Sciences
Heidelberg
Germany
Constanze Janda is Professor of Social Security Law, Labour Law and Civil Law at
SRH University of Applied Sciences in Heidelbe rg and Joint Review Editor of EJSS. Her
interests include the social protection of mig rants, bene ts for unemployed persons and
protection in case of sickness and old age .
Ruth Dukes , e Labour Con stitution: e enduring idea of labour law, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2014, 244 pages, ISBN 9 7801917927002
Which conceptual framework is appropriate for understanding labour law today?
is book attempts to answer to this fundamental question and aims to contribute
to current doctrina l debates regarding the idea of labour law. e starti ng point of
this work is the statement that contemporary studies of labour law in Britain have
in common the rejection of ‘old ways of thinking labour law’. is is why the author,
Ruth Dukes, cur rently Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, seeks to shed new
light on two major historical scholars of labour law, Hugo Sinzheimer (1875–1945)
and his student, Otto K ahn-Freund (1900–1979).
e main achievement of this book l ies in the very subtle presentation and
reassessment of the relevance of ‘old approaches’ for analysi ng the challenges now faced
by British labour law and Europea n social law. In the rst ha lf of the book, Ruth Dukes
invites the reader to re-exa mine the notion of the ‘labour constit ution’, theorised by the
great German wr iter, Hugo Sinzheimer, who took part in the dr a ing of t he Constitution
2 A French version of this rev iew has been published in t he Revue de droit du travail (no. 10, Octob er
2015).
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