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Hard and soft law approaches to protecting worker rights

In: Handbook on Globalisation and Labour Standards

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  • Kimberly Ann Elliott

Abstract

One of the more divisive issues in the debates over workers' rights and globalization has been whether or when trade sanctions are an appropriate response to violations of international labor standards, and who should decide. There were efforts to give the International Labour Organization strong enforcement tools after it was created in 1919, but they were not used and were later softened. There were renewed efforts to strengthen the ILO's role in the 1990s as the debate over globalization's effects on workers heated up. At the same time, some labor advocates pushed for the newly created World Trade Organization (WTO) to use its legally binding dispute settlement system to enforce trade-related labor standards. When those efforts went nowhere, the United States acted unilaterally to include and steadily strengthen provisions protecting worker rights in its bilateral and regional agreements. Yet enforcement of those provisions has been spotty at best. This chapter aims to put the debate over enforcement of labor standards into broader context by exploring international legal scholarship on ‘hard' and ‘soft' law.

Suggested Citation

  • Kimberly Ann Elliott, 2022. "Hard and soft law approaches to protecting worker rights," Chapters, in: Handbook on Globalisation and Labour Standards, chapter 18, pages 326-338, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:18768_18
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