Virginia Mantouvalou (ed), The Right to Work: Legal and Philosophical Perspectives, Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2015, 351 + xiv pp, hb £60.00.
| Date | 01 January 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12162 |
| Author | H. W. Arthurs |
| Published date | 01 January 2016 |
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Virginia Mantouvalou (ed), The Right to Work: Legal and Philosophical
Per spe ct ives , Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2015, 351 +xiv pp, hb £60.00.
Virginia Mantouvalou has assembled a remarkable collection of essays on the
‘right to work’ (RTW). The provenance, content, efficacy, future prospects
and very existence of RTW are contested by many of her distinguished con-
tributors. Moreover, while the subtitle of her volume promises readers a ‘legal
and philosophical’ inquiry into RTW, Dr Mantouvalou has wisely allowed
her contributors to stray into political economy, history, sociology and other
disciplines. Heterodoxy sometimes robs edited volumes of their intellectual
coherence, but in the case of The Right to Work, it turns out to be one of the
book’s greatest attractions.
Of course, there are limits evento heterodoxy. The contributors exhibit very
different views about the possibility of achieving RTW in theory or in practice,
ranging from guarded optimism, to wistful regret, to outright pessimism, to
brisk dismissal. But they all, explicitly or implicitly, take as their point of
departure the intrinsic value of work, its connection to human self-realisation
and membership in civil society, and the harm suffered by those denied access
to work altogether or to work that is safe, secure and decently remunerated.
None of the contributors embraces market fundamentalism or offers a legal,
moral or political defence of unregulated labour markets or workplaces. In this
crucial respect, their opinions converge and, it must be said, stand in opposition
to those of most governments and mainstream economists.
The philosophical foundations and moral significance of RTWare efficiently
and provocatively explored in essays by David Wiggins (‘Work, its Moral Mean-
ing or Import’), J. E. Penner (‘Aristotle, Arendt and the Gentleman: How the
Conception of Remuneration Figures in our Understanding of a Right to
Work and Be Paid’) and especially by Hugh Collins (‘Is there a Human Right
to Work?’), who first identifies and then refutes the main arguments against re-
garding RTW as a human right (that it is ‘imprecise, impracticable, inconsistent,
instrumental and incoherent’ (18)). A second set of essays seeks to rally support
for RTW by pointing out that it helps to bolster the case for employing per-
sons with disabilities (Albin, ‘Universalising the Right to Work of Persons with
Disabilities: An Equality and Dignity Based Approach’), for the reinstatement
of wrongly discharged workers (Howe, ‘Why Do So Few Employees Return
to their Jobs?: In Pursuit of a Right to Work Following Unfair Dismissal’), and
for ensuring non–discriminator y and non-exploitative labour markets and em-
ployment practices (Mantouvalou, ‘The Right to Non-Exploitative Work’).
These are worthy projects and they deserve all the bolstering they can at-
tract. However, each stands on its own merits, enjoys widespread support
and is legally and logically defensible without reference to an over-arching
legally-entrenched RTW. Finally, the case for RTW is given an impressive
C2016 The Authors. The Modern Law Review C2016 The Moder n LawReview Limited (2016) 79(1) MLR 183–206
Published by John Wiley& Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
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