Ruth Dukes

University of Glasgow, School of Law, Faculty Member

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Ruth Dukes is Professor of Labour Law at the University of Glasgow, UK. Her research interests lie in the fields of labour law, labour history and employment relations. In 2010, she was awarded the Modern Law Review's Wedderburn Prize for her article 'Otto Kahn-Freund and Collective Laissez-Faire: an Edifice without a Keystone?'. In 2011/12 she was an Early Career Fellow of the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council and a MacCormick Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Her monograph, The Labour Constitution (OUP 2014) was runner up for the SLSA Socio-Legal Theory and History Prize 2016. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Institute of Employment Rights.
Address: Glasgow, United Kingdom

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Papers by Ruth Dukes

The Economic Sociology of Labour Law

Journal of Law and Society, 2019

Drawing on the work of Max Weber, this paper considers the utility of an approach to the study of... more Drawing on the work of Max Weber, this paper considers the utility of an approach to the study of labour law, which it calls the economic sociology of labour law (ESLL). It identifies the contract for work as the key legal institution in the field, and the primary focus of scholarly analysis. Characterising the act of contracting for work as an example of what Weber called economic social action oriented to the legal order, it proposes that Weber's notion of the labour constitution be used to map the context within which contracting for work takes place. And it argues that, in comparison to traditional socio-legal approaches, ESLL has the significant advantage of allowing for account to be taken of the individual and commercial, as well as the social and legal, elements of contracting for work.

format_quoteWeber's economic sociology describes economic actions driven by material interests but influenced by legal order and social context.format_quote

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From the Labour Constitution to an Economic Sociology of Labour Law

This is the author's response to a book symposium on my 2014 monograph, The Labour Constitution: ... more This is the author's response to a book symposium on my 2014 monograph, The Labour Constitution: the Enduring Idea of Labour Law. The symposium includes contributions from Karl Klare, Judy Fudge, Michael Fischl, Emilios Christodoulidis and Guy Mundlak. These contributions were first presented at the LLRN2 Conference in Amsterdam in 2015, and are published now to mark the new paperback edition of the book (December 2017).

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Article 11 ECHR and the Right to Collective Bargaining

An extended case commentary on the English Court of Appeal's decision in the case of PDAU v Boots... more

format_quoteThe PDAU's long struggle for recognition exposed flaws in the statutory procedure benefiting non-independent unions.format_quote

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Introduction to Special Issue, Labour Laws and Labour Markets: New Methodologies

This short piece introduces a special issue of Social & Legal Studies on the topic Labour Laws an... more

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Insiders, Outsiders and Conflicts of Interest

If labour law, as Arthurs puts it, ‘takes its purpose, form, and content from the larger politica... more If labour law, as Arthurs puts it, ‘takes its purpose, form, and content from the larger political economy from which it originates and operates’, what shape does or should labour law assume in response to the transformation of the political economy in countries of the global North, with the declining prevalence of the postwar model of full employment within a formal welfare state regime? Correspondingly, what is the proper role to be played by labour law and labour relations institutions in the development process within industrialising countries of the global South?

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International Labour Rights: Legitimising the International Legal Order?

This paper considers the role of international labour rights in an era of globalisation. It begin... more This paper considers the role of international labour rights in an era of globalisation. It begins from Patrick Macklem's definition of that role in terms of providing the international legal order with a measure of normative legitimacy. It then interrogates the relationship between sovereignty and international labour rights in an era of globalization, highlighting the particular significance, in this context, of the voluntary surrender by nation states of elements of their sovereignty. It questions whether Macklem has given due consideration to this phenomenon, and to its consequences for the rights and interests of workers; whether, therefore, he has succeeded in providing an account of international labour rights that is at once descriptive and normative, as he intends it to be. Having drawn attention to the limitations of international labour rights, the paper concludes by commenting briefly on the desirability of a body of transnational labour law, of which international labour law would form only one part.

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Identifying the Purposes of Labour Law

In A Purposive Approach to Labour Law, Guy Davidov advocates the development of such an approach ... more In A Purposive Approach to Labour Law, Guy Davidov advocates the development of such an approach as potentially useful to academics, and to legislatures, courts, employees and employers. The task, as he defines it, is both normative and descriptive in nature, directed at achieving a ‘clear understanding of what the law is trying to achieve (or should try to achieve).’ Having diagnosed, in the opening passages of the book, a ‘mismatch between goals and means’ in the field of labour law, Davidov goes on to utilise his discussion of labour law’s purposes as a first step towards restoring the connection between (particular) labour laws and the goals behind them. (His concern, when he talks of a mismatch, is with the ‘scope’ of labour laws – to whom do they apply – and with questions of compliance, enforcement and obsolescence.) But let us note at the outset that the claim made for the usefulness of the purposive approach is much broader than that: ‘[whenever] we are confronted with the need to update (or reform) labour laws, interpret specific provisions, or ask whether a law is constitutional’, the discussion must start, Davidov asserts, with the identification of the law’s purpose.

In my contribution to this volume, my focus lies with the particular way in which Davidov seeks to identify the purposes of labour law. I begin by exploring in greater detail the nature of his project: why he wishes to identify labour law’s purposes; how he sets about doing so. On the basis of that exploration, I raise the question whether Davidov’s identification of labour law’s purposes is on the face of it sufficiently objective, and therefore authoritative, to be useful in the manner that he would like it to be. The final part of the paper is devoted to a brief discussion of possible alternative methods of identifying labour law’s purposes, assessed against Davidov’s ambition of assisting the legislature, the judiciary, and potential litigants in the interpretation and application of the law.

format_quoteDavidov rejects 'market failure' as insufficient for explaining labour law's goals, redefining it through the lens of bargaining power inequalities.format_quote

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Otto Kahn-Freund: A Weimar Life

Modern Law Review, 2017