The history of job (in)security: Why private law theory may not save work law
-
Sophia Z. Lee
Abstract
This Article uses a history of the push for job security in the United States during the late 20th century to assess New Private Law (NPL) theory. The history recounts the rise and fall of common law and statutory approaches to replacing at-will employment with termination for just cause only. Applying NPL theory to that history, the Article argues that NPL theorists’ current approach to defining their topic of study and distinguishing it from public law is inconsistent within and across theories. NPL theorists seek to carve out an area of law where interpersonal morality trumps legal economists’ goal of collective welfare maximization. That conceptual project depends on a coherent and consistent approach to distinguishing private from public law. Ultimately, the Article argues, NPL theorists face a more fundamental problem, however. Regardless of how one categorizes the events in this history, it shows that the common law-derived interpersonal morality at the heart of NPL theory may not strengthen worker protections in the ways at least some of its theorists hope.
© 2023 by Theoretical Inquiries in Law
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Private Law Theory Meets the Law of Work
- Introduction
- Nondomination and the ambitions of employment law
- Relational and associational justice in work
- Can contract emancipate? contract theory and the law of work
- The work of tort law: Why nonconsensual access to the workplace matters?
- The classical liberal version of labor law: Beware of coercion dressed up as liberty
- Is labor law internal or external to private law? The view from Cedar point
- The history of job (in)security: Why private law theory may not save work law
- Managerial prerogative, property rights, and labor control in employment status disputes
- Good faith in employment
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Private Law Theory Meets the Law of Work
- Introduction
- Nondomination and the ambitions of employment law
- Relational and associational justice in work
- Can contract emancipate? contract theory and the law of work
- The work of tort law: Why nonconsensual access to the workplace matters?
- The classical liberal version of labor law: Beware of coercion dressed up as liberty
- Is labor law internal or external to private law? The view from Cedar point
- The history of job (in)security: Why private law theory may not save work law
- Managerial prerogative, property rights, and labor control in employment status disputes
- Good faith in employment
