Introduction

This chapter introduces the book’s main goal: to provide a “principled labor law” method to decide hard cases. It describes principled labor law as a Latin American method embedded in the principles of protection, primacy of reality, nonwaiver, and continuity. It argues that principled labor law can be useful even in the least likely case of labor protection, the United States, and explains how, if useful for the United States, it is likely helpful for other jurisdictions. It describes how principled labor law complements perspectives favoring freedom of association—the so-called labor constitution—but opposes views attempting to eviscerate the idea of protecting weaker parties from contemporary law, or those that envision labor law as merely a regulatory endeavor. It also describes how principled labor law shares similarities with the purposive perspective of Guy Davidov, but also contrasts with that perspective, to the extent principled labor law is mostly concerned, and is, in fact, “rulified” in favor of labor protection. It explains that principled labor law seems particularly needed to evade problems of legal endogeneity. The chapter concludes by arguing that the book provides a countercultural narrative for labor law in the United States that is also consonant with international labor standards and, as such, better brings U.S. labor law into the mainstream. Principled labor law may be less countercultural in other countries, but may also help there to renew jurisdictional commitments in favor of labor protection.