The Capability Approach to Labour Law

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Age Discrimination ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Employment Policy ◽  
Freedom Of Association ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Normative Basis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Capability Approach

In this volume, leading scholars of both labour law and the Capability Approach (CA) explore the possible connections between their disciplines. Accounts of the CA—particularly those of Martha C. Nussbaum and Amartya Sen—do not specifically address labour law, but the CA is attractive to labour lawyers and scholars examining the foundations of their discipline. The questions being asked are whether the CA has anything to offer labour law, and if it does, what forms might this offering take? And, conversely, what light labour law might shine on the CA? In addressing these questions, the chapters in Part I inquire into the nature of the relationship between the CA and labour law—whether it is positive or negative and whether the CA can provide a normative basis for, or an understanding of, labour law. The chapters in Part II explore the CA/labour law debate through different and well-known perspectives on labour law, including economics, history, critical theory, restorative justice, and human rights. The final set of chapters examine the possible relevance of the CA to a range of specific labour law issues, such as freedom of association, age discrimination in the workplace, trade, employment policy, and sweatshop goods. As with this set of specific issues, the book as a whole is not meant to be an exhaustive account of the CA/labour law connection. Rather, it is offered as a first focused effort to open up the discussion and to stimulate further inquiry in this interdisciplinary enterprise.

What is Labour Law? Implications of the Capability Approach

2019 ◽  
pp. 122-140
Author(s):  
Brian Langille
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Legal Subject ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Scope Of Application ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Capability Approach

Creating real capabilities to engage in decent work is a vital social project. Labour law is best conceived of as that part of our law which seeks to remove obstacles to, and to nurture, such capabilities. Labour law’s undertaking is thus part of the larger project of human development—of advancing the cause of substantive human freedom conceived of as the real capacity to lead a life we have reason to value. On this view, the world of labour law is large (it is concerned with all who work) and its mission one which is both important and coheres with our basic values in all aspects of our lives. But labour law has, at present, another account of itself, long successful, but which is narrower and less ambitious. The legal starting point for that view is contract, and labour law’s mission is to control contract power. This is an important but narrower normative vision, which both restricts our understanding of what labour law is and limits its scope of application. Attempts to advance labour law’s self-understanding by appealing to the capability approach have been made, but met with resistance. In this chapter, this encounter is reviewed and assessed by examining the role of the capabilities approach (CA) in constituting labour law as a legal subject. In so doing, this chapter draws attention to another issue—the relationship between the normative narrative underpinning a discipline such as labour law (whatever it may be) and its expression in law.

scholarly journals The capabilities and human rights of high performance athletes

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Adams ◽  
Emma Kavanagh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Precise Analysis ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Capability Approach

High performance athletes participate and function in sports systems where exploitative behaviours may become manifest. These behaviours potentially violate an individual athlete’s human rights. Using the Capability Approach first outlined by Amartya Sen the paper details how a more precise analysis of human rights, in the context of high performance sport, may be achieved. Using in-depth narrative accounts from high performance athletes, data illustrate how athlete maltreatment is related to individual capabilities and functionings: the loss of individual freedoms infringes accepted notions of human rights. The implications for practice concern how human rights may be protected within and for systems of high performance production.

Well-Being, Adaptation and Human Limitations*

2006 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 83-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mozaffar Qizilbash
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Martha Nussbaum ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Reliable Basis ◽  
The Capability Approach

Philosophical accounts of human well-being face a number of significant challenges. In this paper, I shall be primarily concerned with one of these. It relates to the possibility, noted by Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen amongst others, that people’s desires and attitudes are malleable and can ‘adapt’ in various ways to the straitened circumstances in which they live. If attitudes or desires adapt in this way it can be argued that the relevant desires or attitudes fail to provide a reliable basis for evaluating well-being. This is, what I shall call the ‘adaptation problem’. Nussbaum and Sen have—in different ways used this argument to motivate their versions of the ‘capability approach’. However, questions remain about the implications of adaptation for philosophical accounts of well-being.

Approccio delle capacitŕ e sociologia economica: un matrimonio vincente per lo studio delle politiche

2009 ◽  
pp. 66-79
Author(s):  
Gianluca Busilacchi
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Economic Sociology ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Empirical Level ◽  
The Capability Approach

- Over the last year the capability approach has been widely used by social scientist. Its success is mainly due to the richness of its theoretical framework and the possibility to enrich the interdisciplinary researches also at the empirical level. However the empirical applications in the field of public policy, especially social policy, are still very limited: what is the reason? And which is the role of economic sociology in contributing to the analysis of social policy endorsing the capability approach? The first part of the paper concerns the explanation of the theoretical framework of the capability approach, through an analysis of its main concepts and empirical applications. Then we will try to see why the capability approach can be especially used by economic sociology, and why this social science can be enriched by the capability approach to analyse social policy with a richer toolbox.Keywords: social policy, capability approach, economic sociology, public policy, Amartya Sen, poverty

Capability Deprivation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rod Hick ◽  
Tania Burchardt
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Current State ◽  
Capability Deprivation ◽  
Key Questions ◽  
The Capability Approach

This article examines capability deprivation as the basis for analyzing poverty. The capability approach, developed initially by Amartya Sen, questions the “informational space” on which considerations of poverty, inequality, justice, and so forth, should be based. According to the capability approach, the appropriate “space” for analyzing poverty is not what people have, nor how they feel, but what they can do and be. After providing an overview of the concepts that comprise the capability approach, this article discusses three key questions within the literature regarding the nature of the approach, namely: the question of functioning and/or capabilities, the question of a capability list, and the question of aggregation. It also describes some prominent empirical applications that have been inspired by the capability approach and concludes with an assessment of the current state-of-the-art literature on the capability approach.

scholarly journals The Freedom of Association Mess: How We Got into It and How We Can Get out of It

2009 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Langille
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Freedom Of Association ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
State Action ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Canadian constitutional law regarding freedom of association for workers is a mess. The jurisprudence to date has taken an approach to state action and positive obligations to legislate which is inconsistent with section 15, and has failed to articulate the relationship between the abstract statement of basic rights or freedoms and the detailed statutes and regulations that instantiate and enforce them. This paper focuses on the impact of the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in BC Health. The author argues that this case misunderstood Canada’s labour law history, international labour law obligations, “Charter values”, and the distinction between “freedoms” and “rights”. This paper argues that by using labour relations statutes as a starting point and applying the constitutional idea of equality, courts can protect freedom of association for workers and find a way out of the mess we are in.

scholarly journals Towards a Capability-Oriented Eco-Social Policy: Elements of a Normative Framework

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jean-Michel Bonvin ◽  
Francesco Laruffa
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Normative Framework ◽  
Normative Basis ◽  
The Capability Approach

In this article we explore the potential of the capability approach as a normative basis for eco-social policies. While the capability approach is often interpreted as a productivist or maximalist perspective, assuming the desirability of economic growth, we suggest another understanding, which explicitly problematises the suitability of economic growth and productive employment as means for enhancing capabilities. We argue that the capability approach allows rejecting the identification of social progress with economic growth and that it calls for democratically debating the meaning of wellbeing and quality of life. We analyse the implications of this conceptualisation for the design of welfare states.

Global inequities and healthcare disparities: can they be eliminated ethically?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hengameh Hosseini
Keyword(s):  
John Rawls ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Healthcare Disparities ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Free Banking ◽  
Grameen Bank ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Capability Approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively explore and propose solutions to global economic inequities and disparities, with a particular focus on healthcare. This paper also aims to explore whether drastic reductions of inequality are justified in terms of conventional economic theory, and whether ending inequality can be viewed as ethical through certain lenses. Design/methodology/approach To seek the response to those questions, the paper uses Pareto optimality; Hicks–Kaldor model; Millian utilitarianism; the ethical theories developed by John Rawls in his 1971 work on ethics as well as his 1999 Law of People; and the capability approach developed by Noble Laureate economists Amartya Sen. As demonstrated, those equalizing works cannot support a policy that would advocate an end to global inequities. Those theories also propose no practical solutions for the end of those extreme inequities. Thus, the paper attempts to present other solutions. Findings This paper discusses two theories that are very helpful in supporting those without much wealth. Mohammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank and its provision of small free-interest loans to poor businesses (in particular women) in Bangladesh has been very successful. Another alternative advocating interest-free banking that was proposed by the proponents of binary economics is discussed. Originality/value The author believes the arguments used to support the theses of this paper be unique and novel.

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