Legal change and legal mobilisation: what does strategic litigation mean for workers and trade unions?

Dukes, R. and Kirk, E. (2023) Legal change and legal mobilisation: what does strategic litigation mean for workers and trade unions? Social and Legal Studies, (doi: 10.1177/09646639231204942) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

This article addresses the question of what strategic litigation means for workers and trade unions. Drawing on the existing literature and on a series of semi-structured interviews with union officials, lawyers with experience in representing them and other actors from across the labour movement, it explores how U.K. trade unions and actors within them understand and experience strategic litigation and legal mobilisation, what they seek to achieve, and what has been effective and ineffective for them. Uncovering both differences and commonalities between different unions, it suggests that the decision to devote union resources to – usually very costly – litigation is never taken lightly. Trade union approaches to strategic litigation involve neither a straightforward embrace of it nor an outright scepticism regarding its potential.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the H2020 European Research Council (grant number 757395).
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kirk, Dr Eleanor and Dukes, Professor Ruth
• Authors: Dukes, R., and Kirk, E.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management; College of Social Sciences > School of Law
• Journal Name: Social and Legal Studies
• Publisher: Sage Publications
• ISSN: 0964-6639
• ISSN (Online): 1461-7390
• Published Online: 19 October 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Social and Legal Studies 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License