Global Justice and International Labour Rights (Introduction)

This is the introduction chapter of a new edited volume titled Global Justice and International Labour Rights, edited by Yossi Dahan, Hanna Lerner and Faina Milman-Sivan (Cambridge University Press). Despite the growing global consensus regarding the need to ensure minimal labor standards, such as adequate safety and health conditions, freedom of association and the prohibition of child labor, millions of workers across the world continue to work in horrific conditions. Who should be held responsible, both morally and legally, for protecting workers' rights? What moral and legal obligations should individuals and institutions bear towards foreign workers in their countries? Is there any democratic way to generate, regulate, and enforce labor standards in a global labor market? The essays included in the book address these questions by taking a fresh look at the normative assumptions underlying existing, and proposed, international labor regulations. By focusing on international labor as a particular sphere of justice, the book seeks to advance both the contemporary philosophical debate on global justice and the legal scholarship on international labor. The introduction presents the main themes addressed by the book chapters, written by experts in international labor law, philosophy, political theory and public policy. The contributors consider, conceptually and empirically, the various ways in which contemporary theories of global justice can either serve as an alternative foundation for international labor law or highlight the need to rethink certain aspects therein