TRACTION: Transnational Labour Constitutionalism: Strategic Litigation and the Constitutional Protection of Work

欧洲的劳工运动受到以下因素的威胁：劳动法规的空洞化、缺乏实质性的社会权利保护、资本利润最大化的逻辑在决策的各个领域得到提升，以及对工会组织的限制增加，这使得真正的民主参与和政治参与的空间有限。在这种民主代表制的真空中，为了应对真实的社会挑战，民间社会团体，特别是劳工运动，在国家和跨国一级调动了法律的和政治资源。TRACTION旨在理解欧洲劳工运动参与跨国战略诉讼的方式及其作为社会政治斗争工具的潜在有效性。作为欧洲劳工运动的超国家法律的动员战略的第一次全面研究，该项目将提供原创成果，使学者，工会成员和劳工运动从业者能够理解并促进正在进行的关于有效战略的讨论。此外，TRACTION有助于就公民、国家法律的制度以及全球政治和法律的机构之间的关系进行紧急辩论。TRACTION专注于跨国法律的动员，描述并评估了民间社会团体表达民主要求和实现社会正义诉求的创新机制。跨国劳动法制度（欧盟，欧洲委员会和国际劳工组织）的发展提出了一系列劳动标准，判例，投诉程序和执行机制。国际公法机构制定的规范具有跨国性质，这就引出了关于劳动法标准和判例跨界整合的范围和潜力的关键问题。TRACTION的挑战是绘制跨国劳动法制度带来的战略机遇和局限性，TRACTION通过确定跨学科的机会，将社会法律分析工具应用于跨国劳动法的理论分析，对当代社会法律研究和劳动法奖学金中的一个重大差距做出回应。要了解跨国诉讼的潜在有效性，有必要借鉴法律的动员研究的见解外法律的因素，形成诉讼策略（包括社会，政治和经济因素）和诉讼和政治动员之间的潜在生产关系。关键是，TRACTION将与劳工律师和工会成员一起分析从业者对跨国层面战略诉讼的战略原理和机会/限制的看法。英国脱欧后，英国工会将不得不重新评估跨国劳工法标准和判例的作用和影响。英国退欧不会排除后国家法律的多元化所带来的机会，但超国家法院的作用将发生变化。在这个空间中，TRACTION将分析接近公共国际法律的机构的战略和评估欧洲劳动法制度的持续有效性为英国工会的新方法。TRACTION关注欧洲工会使用跨/国家战略诉讼作为一种机制，以应对当代劳动力所经历的社会，政治和经济不公正的宪法影响。虽然宪法对劳工的保护应保障民主结构，使工人有发言权和补救机制，但战略性诉讼的使用表明缺乏反应迅速的政治代表结构。TRACTION将评价跨国劳工制度在何种程度上提供有效机制，能够引导有关宪法保护工作的政治和法律的要求。

Labour movements in Europe are threatened by the hollowing-out of labour regulations, the absence of substantive social rights protections, the elevation of capital's logic of profit maximisation into all spheres of decision-making, and increased restrictions on trade union organising that leaves limited space for genuine democratic engagement and political participation. In this void of democratic representation and in response to real social challenges civil society groups, and labour movements in particular, have mobilised legal and political resources at the national and transnational level. TRACTION aims to comprehend the ways that European labour movements have engaged in transnational strategic litigation and its potential effectiveness as a tool of socio-political struggle. As the first comprehensive study of supranational legal mobilisation strategies by European labour movements, this project will provide original outputs from which academics, trade unionists and labour movement practitioners can comprehend and contribute to an ongoing discussion about effective strategies. Furthermore, TRACTION contributes to urgent debates about the relationship between citizens, national legal systems, and global political and legal institutions. Focusing on the mobilisation of transnational law, TRACTION describes and evaluates the innovative mechanisms through which civil society groups might express democratic demands and implement social justice claims.The development of transnational labour law regimes (in the EU, CoE, and ILO) presents a constellation of labour standards, jurisprudence, complaint procedures, and enforcement mechanisms. The transnational nature of the norms produced by public international law institutions begs key questions about the scope and potential for the integration of labour law standards and jurisprudence across borders. TRACTION's challenge is to map the strategic opportunities and limitations presented by transnational labour law regimes.TRACTION responds to a significant gap in contemporary socio-legal studies and labour law scholarship by identifying the interdisciplinary opportunity to apply socio-legal analytic tools to doctrinal analysis of transnational labour law. To develop understanding of transnational litigation's potential effectiveness, it is necessary to draw on legal mobilisation studies' insights about the extra-legal factors that shape litigation strategies (including social, political, and economic factors) and the potentially productive relation between litigation and political mobilisation. Critically, TRACTION will engage with labour lawyers and trade unionists to analyse practitioner perspectives on the strategic rationale and opportunities/limitations of strategic litigation at the transnational level.Post-Brexit, British trade unions will have to re-evaluate the role and effects of transnational labour law standards and jurisprudence. Brexit will not foreclose the opportunities presented by postnational legal pluralism but the role of supranational courts will change. In this space, TRACTION will analyse new ways of approaching public international legal institutions strategically and evaluate the continued effectiveness of European labour law regimes for British trade unions.TRACTION is concerned with the constitutional implications of European trade unions using trans/national strategic litigation as a mechanism for confronting social, political, and economic injustices experienced by contemporary labour. While the constitutional protection of labour ought to guarantee democratic structures that give workers a voice and mechanisms of redress, the use of strategic litigation indicates an absence of responsive political representation structures. TRACTION will evaluate the extent to which transnational labour regimes provide effective mechanisms capable of channelling political and legal demands about the constitutional protection of work.