The ILO and the new ‘common sense’: reflections on a centenary

Christodoulidis, E. (2019) The ILO and the new ‘common sense’: reflections on a centenary. In: Bungenberg, M., Krajewski, M., Tams, C. J., Terhechte, J. P. and Ziegler, A. R. (eds.) European Yearbook of International Economic Law 2019. Series: European yearbook of international economic law (10). Springer: Cham, pp. 35-52. ISBN 9783030224844 (doi: 10.1007/8165_2019_43)

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Abstract

Taking the cue from Alain Supiot’s important defence of the ‘spirit of Philadelphia’ the paper argues that the Philadelphia Declaration of 1944 renewed and deepened the commitments on which the ILO was set up in 1919, and seeks a firm theoretical footing in Supiot’s defence of the law’s ‘dogmatic’ foundations. It then goes on to track a double mutation, firstly away from political-constitutionalist protection of work toward a form of human rights protection, and secondly away from ‘hard’ institutional processes to ‘soft’ aspirational standards. This gradual migration allows a certain decisive separation to install itself and organise the field, a break between a pragmatic common sense on the one hand, and on the other an aspirational, if not utopian, discourse. This separation misreads and undercuts the integrity of international labour law that depends on holding together its organising principles and their instantiations.

Item Type:Book Sections
Status:Published
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Christodoulidis, Professor Emilios
Authors: Christodoulidis, E.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Law
Publisher:Springer
ISBN:9783030224844
Published Online:07 September 2019

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